The South Africa U16 side kick off their UEFA U16 Development tournament on Monday with a few interesting rules set in play.
Their opening game against Northern Ireland will see head coach Zipho Dlangalala mindful of the rules set as the program is clearly about development and not results-based.
In the official guidelines seen by iDiski Times, it’s stated that a maximum of four players born in 2008 is allowed, the rest need to be younger, and nine substitutions can be used in three intervals in order to maximize playing time for all squads taking part.
Each player needs to have a minimum of 90 minutes played, which is compulsory to take part – while there’s a maximum of 120 minutes suggested for the players to feature over a 48-hour period.
“We arrived in Poland in good health on Saturday (25 March 2023) after a long journey and got straight to business, as we held a training session for the boys. Sunday (26 March 2023) was our MD-1 session and we had to focus on our playing style and tactical approach for the match against Northern Ireland,” the coach told SAFA.net.
“We are here to firstly learn from these opponents and get the players to understand that international football is different to local football. We will be facing opponents that are much bigger in physical structure than us, but we will stay true to our strengths.
“We believe that this tournament will be a great learning experience for us, and we are very grateful for this opportunity to build our football development.”
A technical observer either appointed by SAFA or UEFA will watch and monitor all their games and provide insight and advice before developing a technical report for the coaching staff and players at the end of the Elite Development Program hosted by the European Association.
