SEDIBENG. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that these trials that kids or players are paying for are a money-making scam.

Recently there have been trials all over Gauteng hosted by the so-called elite soccer academies. They asked kids to pay for it.

Really?

The saddest thing is that if they fail the trials, they don’t get their money back.

However, Zakes’ Sports Corner doesn’t blame those so-called elite academies but rather the parents. The same parents who pay for their children to attend these trials are the same parents whose are children trained for free by coaches from the poorest of poor communities.

They would rather pay for the trials than improve those communities’ football clubs. They are nothing but hypocrites! This has been happening for too long with parents undermining the community’s development teams.

To make it interesting, these teams produce professional players with fewer resources. Point in case, here we have coaches like Coach Spenza, Yster, Coach Mondli, Coach Happy, Coach Isaac, and Coach Themba to mention but a few, who have produced top players in top-flight football.

Many of them are doing better jobs compared to those so-called elite academies or development clubs.

Zakes’ Sports Corner finds it very strange that parents can afford to pay for their children to attend trials but fail to do the same with the teams from the poorest of poor communities. Zakes’ Sports Corner had a heart-to-heart conversation with some local coaches about this and they feel set aside by their own communities, especially parents. It is well known that most or the majority of development coaches don’t have jobs.

Zakes’ Sports Corner is indirectly involved with the development of sport in this region and I can attest to the hardship the development coaches experience.