The South African Football Association (SAFA) will kick off the National under 17 Youth Championships in the SAFA Siyanda region in Upington. The tournament runs from 01 to 06 December 2009 in the Northern Cape Province. Ten teams will be taking part in the event – nine Provincial teams from the SAFA Regions and a team representing the South African Schools Football Association (SASFA). This is the 19th edition of the tournament.

Last year this tournament was held in Secunda, with North West Province emerging as winners of the youth football festival.

Addressing the media in Johannesburg on Tuesday; newly-appointed SAFA Technical Director Serame Letsoaka said tournaments of this nature will benefit the country in the future.

“The Under 17 Youth Championship is a good tournament for the Talent Identification Process, we need the boys to be ready to compete at the highest level. Some of them will be selected to be part of the National Under 20 squad,” said Letsoaka.

There will be two groups divided into five teams each – with matches scheduled to take place at the Danie Kuys Stadium and the Pabello Stadium.

The semi finals will be played on Saturday, 05 December. Sunday (06 December) will see the third and fourth place decided before the final is played – all these matches will be at the Danie Kuys Stadium.

SAFA President Kirsten Nematandani says the Association will also use the tournament to inculcate the culture of learning, and promote education as a necessity to the young players. Nematandani has urged all team mangers to be vigilant and act decisively against any form of age cheating. “The under 17 National Youth Championship is a critical stage for developing our players for senior teams, and we encourage players to work hard at their game, and equally so at their school assignments, it is our vision to see a number of university graduates in the Bafana set up, and that mission starts now,” said Nematandani.

Last Thursday (19 November) SAFA had a successful Awards Ceremony at the Sandton Convention Centre, and one Award recipient was a player identified from this tournament, “We honoured Lindsay Jennings at the Awards Ceremony from the Eastern Cape for his success as last season's player of the tournament, and I'm looking forward to see which province will out stage defending Champions North West, and which player will be at the SAFA Awards, I wish you all the luck and at the end of the tournament we will all be winners by keeping up with spirit of fair play,” added Nematandani.

Group A	Group B
A1 KZN	B1 Northern Cape
A2 Mpumalanga	B2 Eastern Cape
A3 Western Cape	B3 Free State
A4 Gauteng	B4 Limpopo
A5 North West	B5 SASFA

Host		Visitor	Time	Field	Match No
A3 Western Cape	Vs	A4 Gauteng	09:00	Danie Kuys	1
A1 KZN	Vs	A2 Mpumalanga	18:30	Danie Kuys	2
A5 North West	Vs	Bye	-	-

Host		Visitor	Time	Field	Match No
A1 KZN	Vs	A4 Gauteng	17:00	Pabello	3
A5 North West	Vs	A2 Mpumalanga	18:30	Pabello	4
A3 Western Cape	Vs	Bye	-	-

Host		Visitor	Time	Field	Match No
A5 North West	Vs	A3 Western Cape	09:00	Pabello	5
A4 Gauteng	Vs	A2 Mpumalanga	10:30	Pabello	6
A1 KZN	Vs	A5 North West	17:00	Pabello	7
A2 Mpumalanga	Vs	A3 Western Cape	18:30	Pabello	8

HOST		Visitor	Time	Field	Match No
A3 Western Cape	Vs	A1 KZN	09:30	Pabello	9
A4 Gauteng	Vs	A5 North West	09:30	Danie Kuys	10
A2 Mpumalanga	Vs	Bye	-	-

09h00: 3rd & 4th Play – offs: Loser Match 11 vs Loser Match 12 - Danie Kuys Stadium
10h30: Finals: Winner Match 11 vs Winner Match 12 - Danie Kuys Stadium

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