Halakasha

HALAKASHA.com goes live!

01 December 2011. 13.00

The much anticipated online publication, Halakasha.com is finally live since it was conceptualized back in 2007, went through due diligence process and now development will finally have a voice. Halakasha is not just another South African soccer publication its the "voice of grassroots football development". Educating communities through football and entertainment whilst providing information about the development and promotional structures of the country's football.

On going live Sizwe Luvuno, founder of Halakasha.com said " this publication is a pilot project, albeit being published on the web, the site is still on its development phase. Due to limited resources we going to focus on Gauteng football and we promise to deliver quality content and good journalism".

As much as Halakasha.com would like to cover the whole country and possibly the world's development, it’s unfortunate that financial constraints play a huge role but communities members of outside GP can still Contact Us if they wish to write or have a story for us we'll be more than happy to publish it on our site.

The vision is clear; access top information, grow the number of our visitors/bloggers once that has been achieved a user friendly, stylish designed and easly navigated site with interactive features, polls and social media intergration will be on the cards. At the moment visit our site, find us on Facebook,Tweeter, and Google+ to share your thoughts, complaints, compliments and suggestion.

Tell your friends and family about Halakasha.com and we hope you enjoy our site.

Halakasha.com

Amajita to represent SA with Pride in Botswana
2011-11-30

With the kick off of their opening match against Mauritius taking place on Friday, the South African national U/20 side (Amajita) left the country for this regional Council Of Southern African Football Associations’ (COSAFA) premier tournament which is scheduled to take place in the Botswana capital of Gaborone from December 1-10. The team engaged in a light training session at the High Performance Centre (HPC) before a short journey to the neighbouring country to join the rest of the participants; Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Amajita is in Group C together with Zambia, Tanzania and Mauritius. South African Football Association (SAFA) President, Kirsten Nematandani visited the team to wish them the best of luck in the tournament and also to give his blessings ahead of what will undoubtedly be a tough assignment. President Nematandani reminded the team of their biggest responsibility which is to represent the millions of South Africans and that anything is possible with a positive attitude, hard work and discipline. “You cannot be crowned champions if you do not have the belief that you can do it; believing means you are adopting a positive attitude; a positive attitude attract positive outcomes. “I have come here to say to you that this is indeed a mission possible for you. It is always better to give 100% in 20 minutes than to give 20% in 90 minutes. Be disciplined and remember that you are there for the whole nation. Hard work never killed anyone but creates success out of individuals. Good luck to you all and remember that the nation is behind you,” said Nematandani. The U/20 Head Coach, Solly Luvhengo said he and his technical team had confidence despite it being a difficult tournament for everybody involved. “As confident as I am in the team, I acknowledge the difficulties that awaits; but we need to take part in competitive competitions like these to gauge, improve, and make any necessary adjustments to this team. “I have worked with some of these players in the past when they were younger and that is a blessing in itself as it means we simply picked up where we had left off,” said Luvhengo. South Africa’s Fixtures • 02 December vs Mauritius • 04 December vs Tanzania • 06 December vs Zambia

Editorial: Capping Promotional Football

Majority of teams in amateur level struggle with playing kits, training kits, training equipment, even worse a proper training pitch. After spending a lot of money to be promoted to the SAB regional league, they still have to pay high fees for transport to games, stadium utilization from the little grant money received from SAFA and SAB. To top it off teams are forced to field 5 (U/21) players and the same is happening with the Vodacom league (U/23) and I didn’t expect it to happen to PSL administered NFD and this is done all in the name of development .

The thing is SAFA refers to all these leagues (Vodacom, SAB, SASOL, ABSA) as developmental instead of promotional, albeit players get paid. Its suicidal but counterproductive because teams are forever surviving in “development leagues” and part of the reason bribery is rife in those rank not only will it hit teams hard in the pocket but put pressure on the young and old talented to race against time. That can only lead to the African Virus killing this beautiful continent and preventing continuity, AGE CHEATING and quite sure it did cross their minds why no youth/senior African Teams has done well in the international competition but African Players are doing excellent abroad. SA football is so overrated we struggle to see the obvious and only in this country we celebrate mediocrity. I say leave promotional football alone with financial constraints amidst our problems in development; capping is unnecessary if we are to champion youth football.

Written by: Sizwe Luvuno

uMthakathi we Ndaba

TO ADVERTISE HERE, CALL: 072 368 9231

Mashaba unhappy with SA U23 draw

2011-12-01

The South African Under 23 Men's National Team coach Shakes Mashaba, is disappointed with his side's one all draw against Gabon played on Wednesday night (30 November).South Africa took the lead in the first half through midfielder Mandla Masango and Gabon equalised deep into the second half to throw Group B wide open in the CAF Under 23 Championship currently underway in the cities of Tangiers and Marrakech.In the other Goup B clash, Cote d'Ivoire scored a late goal against Egypt to top the log with four points. Egypt is second with three points, South Africa is third on two points while Gabon is bottom of the table with a solitary point from two matches. Mashaba says poor finishing has once again put South Africa in a difficult position.

"We took the game to our opponents with the intention of scoring more goals. We did not play defensive at any stage of the match because we wanted a win at all costs but we were let down by lack of concentration and no composure in front of goals. Then we conceded a soft goal from a set-piece situation and the result now makes our game against Egypt on Saturday a must-win to qualify for the semi-finals. It's also interesting that victory against the Young Pharaohs guarantees us a passage to the last four of the Championship, despite what happens in the other Group B clash between Cote d'Ivoire and Gabon," said Mashaba. Gabon coach Claude Albert was impressed with his charges. “Our players take time to acclimatise to match conditions, they are very young and they need time to develop. I was impressed with their play in the second half a the boys came back very strongly despite being a goal down, and we managed to score. We will be back at training to finalise our preparations for the crucial clash against Cote d'Ivoire on Friday, 3 December," said Albert. - SAFA

SAFA Announces endorsement of accredited FIFA Match Agent
2011-11-28

The South African Football Association’s (SAFA) legal department is proud to announce its endorsement of FIFA Match Agent, Rastheom Simons. Simons is the first legally-accredited FIFA match agent in South Africa. His duties will include coordinating matches throughout the world football confederations and ensure that the federations have established good relations and standings before the start of every match. "It's an honour to have an accredited FIFA match official coming from South Africa. This is a great achievement for Rastheom and we are proud of him. It would be great to see many other South Africans follow in his direction," said Chief Mwelo Nonkonyane, Head of the SAFA Legal Committee

SA U23 secure draw in Morocco

November 28 2011 at 02:57am
By Sisa Majola

Marrakesh in Morocco - The South African Under-23 national side were held to a 1-1 draw by a spirited Ivory Coast in their opening Group B Confederation of African Football (Caf) Under-23 Championships at Stade de Marrakesh in Morocco on Sunday evening.

Baby Bafana had held the lead for most of the game, courtesy of a first-half header from striker Phumelele Bhengu in the 22nd minute, completing a Rodney Ramagalela cross on the right side of the box.

Having kept up the pressure for the majority of the second-half, and with South Africa having been reduced to 10 players, the Ivorians netted the equaliser through substitute forward George Griffiths in the 84th minute.

Baby Bafana's defensive effort that had been noticeably stretched by the time Griffiths stabbed home from close range. In the crucial central midfield role, they lost Thami Sangweni, who was sent off for a second bookable offence after 52 minutes as the team went on to lose shape.

This includes surviving a controversial penalty on the hour mark awarded by Moroccan referee Bouchaib Al Ahrach when Eric Mathoho was adjudged to have fouled Vamouti Diomande in the box.

The defender, though, had looked to have made a clean tackle inside the box. Goalkeeper Brilliant Khuzwayo kept his team in play with a brilliant save to deny midfielder Jean Michael Seri’s spot kick, diving to his right side.

Earlier at the same venue, Egypt collected the opening three points on offer, beating Gabon 1-0 to lead in the group standings.

A win for Baby Bafana would have seen them level on points with the North Africans – the two favourites to clinch the semi-final spots from the group.

The South Africans’ next fixture is against Gabon, a match they have to win to stand a chance of passing through to the last four stages of the competition, while the Egyptians take on the Ivorians on Wednesday.

A win for Egypt could ensure them a place in the semi-finals of the final 2012 Olympic qualifier round.

The competition finalists and the winner of the third and fourth place match will progress to the London Games next year with the losing semi-finalists entered into a play-off tie against an Asian Federation country. - Sapa

HALAKASHA.com

Amajita to represent SA with Pride in Botswana

SAFA Announces endorsement of accredited FIFA Match Agent