Alex soccer veterans appeal for soccer kits

The Alexandra Football Veterans Association (AFVA) has appealed for donations of soccer kits and other football equipment. AFVA is an NPO association of legends of the game that seek to plough back their knowledge and skills on aspiring footballers and administrators

Secretary-general Robert Langa said the soccer kits and related equipment will help the veterans in their own keep-fit gym session and practise matches in preparation for sessions with aspirant footballers.

Speaking in an interview with Alex News, Langa, a former executive member of the Alexandra Northrand Local Football Association and non-veteran volunteer who runs the affairs of the AFVA, said the veterans are involved in a number of football legacy and development projects in the township.

Langa said one of those projects include the activism around the desire to have the iconic Alexandra Stadium renamed after one of the township’s distinguished sons of football and education, the late Dr Leepile Taunyane, who was a founding member of the then National Professional Soccer League and its successor, the National Soccer League, that owns the Premier Soccer League brand.

Taunyane, whose surname means ‘a small lion’, was not just a giant football administrator par excellence but also a distinguished teacher in various parts of Johannesburg and former principal of Alexandra High School. He spent many years at the helm of both institutions until his passing on 30 October 2013 at the age of 85.

The other project involves the writing of a book on the history of football in Alexandra, which was the first township to form an organised league way back in 1935, then known as the Alexandra Football Association. It has produced some football greats both on and off the pitch, such Taunyane himself and Dr Irvin Khoza of the Premier Soccer League and Orlando Pirates, to name just a few.