Pretoria — The German government has pledged a whopping R7, 5 million to shape the future of poor African youths through football.

Sport and Recreation South Africa, chief operations officer, Sumayya Khan, said the department, Germany, the German Technical Cooperation, commonly known as GTZ and the German Development Bank, have signed an implementation agreement on the Youth Development through Football programme.

"Sport and Recreation SA together with the GTZ have recently signed the implementation agreement on the Youth Development through Football programme. The German Government has provided 7.5 million Euros for this initiative," she said.

Khan said the project is in line with the department's Mass Participation Programme and supports three of their key strategic objectives.

The strategic objectives are to contribute to a healthy nation by increasing the number of participants; to raise the profile of sport and recreation through addressing issues of national importance; and to contribute in making the 2010 FIFA World Cup the best ever.

The project uses sport to develop social issues affecting the youth. It uses football as a catalyst for development.

Through the delegated agreement, the EU will provide funding to the amount of six million Euros to the Youth Development through Football (YDF). The amount will be utilised for projects in South Africa and ten Sub Saharan African countries.

The implementation plans for the project include the training of youth in all nine provinces in development through sport methodologies; capacity building covering nine Mass Participation Programme (MPP) hubs of activity; and two non-governmental organisations per province; the implementation of the Africa Legacy Programme in Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Ghana, Rwanda and Kenya.

The programme also includes the development and implementation of the International Football Village that is known as the Ke Nako Plaza, to be hosted at the Birchwood Hotel, in Johannesburg.

The programme also covers the building of two five -a-side football pitches, to be built in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape; Implementation of a Caravan ("Strong Youth, strong Africa") touching partner countries and provinces in May 2010.

It also covers capacitation of Governmental and non- governmental organisations (NGOs) to implement youth empowerment through sports initiatives; Sport-for-development events being organised; and youth in poor communities in South Africa having improved access to sport, recreation, arts and culture activities.

"The programme will take physical activity to poor disadvantaged communities across South Africa and also contribute positively towards the improvement of our school sport, which is in most cases still being dominated by urban schools," said Khan.