The Technical Symposium of the South African Football Association (SAFA) has kicked off at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg. The two-day gathering aims at finding answers to remedy the shortfalls of South African football. It ends on Saturday, 28 January.

SAFA President Kirsten Nematandani, who flew in from the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Equatorial Guinea, declared the symposium open. He is expected to return there, as he is part of the organising committee.

Among the 210 delegates at the gathering, were former players, coaches and administrators. These include former Bafana Bafana players Doctor Khumalo, Eric Tinkler, Neil Tovey, Phil Masinga, John Tlale, Andre Arendse; coaches Pitso Mosimane, Shakes Mashaba, Gordon Igesund, Ian Palmer, Ian Gorowa and Augustine Makalakane; former PSL players Kaetano Tembo, and Edzai Kausinayo.

With this consultative and participative approach, we are determined to overcome the challenges we have experienced recently and believe that this symposium creates an important avenue to address our shortcomings.

Our broader aim is to build an organisation that is people-orientated, therefore this gathering is all about listening to the people of this Rainbow Nation because this sport belongs to them, the specialists in football and most important the general public," said Nematandani.

The symposium is the first phase of a three-part action plan that will be unfolded over the next few months.

The process that will be followed in this first phase will be submissions that will be collated by international and local technical experts and form the basis of research and recommendations that will be presented at the next symposium, which will take place during the off season in July this year.

"I believe that this is the first necessary step towards the realisation of the stated objective to create a rich pipeline of talent for our national teams. The people gathered here are best placed to conduct an honest assessment of our game and offer advice on how to address the identified challenges," said Fanyana Sibanyoni, Chairman of the SAFA Technical Committee.

SAFA Technical Director, Serame Letsoaka, also addressed the delegates.

"This is the best move by the Association to get as many think tanks as possible in one room for the benefit of our football. Talent alone cannot propel our game to greater heights, and we hope the inputs we get here will push us to make this country proud. Let us make 2013 and 2014 a turning point. Let us shape our football together, because together we can," said Letsoaka.

There were presentations by Amisco, a statistical analysis company as well as the German Football Federation (DFB) on the Talent Identification System.