![\"\"](\"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Madibaz-football-LLR.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>“Winning the SAB Regional League is a huge step in the right direction. It all forms part of the plan to establish a Madibaz Football Academy and, ultimately, National First Division status.<\/p>\n
He said Madibaz had regularly proved themselves as one of the top teams in the Port Elizabeth Football Association league, recently winning the title twice in three years.<\/p>\n
This gained them entry into the SAB League – the next tier of regional soccer – for the 2015\/16 season and they have now secured the title in their second year.<\/p>\n
“Winning the SAB League gives us the opportunity to contest the play-offs for the Motsepe Provincial League, which is the next step in the Safa promotional league conduits,” said Tommy.<\/p>\n
“While we have long-term plans, realistically the next objective is to qualify for the Motsepe Provincial League, which starts in September.”<\/p>\n
Tommy said they had created a specific philosophy which was based on the process rather than being results-driven.<\/p>\n
“We manipulate the players’ cognitive responses to football problems and objectives by ensuring they accept responsibility for their training performances and decision-making.<\/p>\n
“Of course, this can only be achieved in an organised structure where everybody understands their roles, from me as sport manager to the coaching staff and players.”<\/p>\n
Besides the Motsepe League play-offs, Madibaz will also be targeting the University Sport South Africa (USSA) football tournament in July in an attempt to qualify for next year’s Varsity Football.<\/p>\n
Tommy said it was important to appreciate the popularity of football at NMMU where 21 teams compete in an internal student competition – the Campus Football League.<\/p>\n
“This provides the bedrock of the football talent potential and recruitment,” he added.<\/p>\n
“The success of the football club must be applauded because all this is achieved in a difficult economic environment and challenging circumstances.<\/p>\n
“The club has not had a sponsor for the past three years, but the excellence of the team’s performances and creditable club structures provide potential sponsors with a guaranteed return on investments.”<\/p>\n
Tommy acknowledged the part played by coach Wayne Iveson in the Madibaz success story.<\/p>\n
“Wayne comes with a huge amount of passion and appreciation for student football,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The relationship between the coach and his players is a big positive, complemented by the leadership of the senior students such as captain Claudius Sagandira, Sachin Rautenbach and Kieran Koert.<\/p>\n
“In addition, exciting young players such as Sachin Jackson, Bandile Skosana and Siya Hans have contributed greatly to a vastly successful campaign.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The NMMU-Madibaz Football Club have laid down a blueprint for their future and the first priority will be to successfully negotiate the play-offs for the Safa-Eastern Cape Motsepe League in June. This comes after Madibaz emerged triumphant in the SAB Regional League last weekend, taking an unassailable lead on the log with four matches remaining. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":58746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2427,371,2425,1770,2426,1847],"class_list":["post-4005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football-academy","tag-football-news","tag-madibaz-football-club","tag-nmmu","tag-sab-regional-league","tag-varsity-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}