"There have been plenty of boys with the potential and the talent. There is very little pathway for these kids, in reality. They will go to the academies in the affluent areas instead. "Scouts don't come to townships very often - it's perceived as too dangerous. "But there are still lots of barriers for them in life, let alone in football, particularly as potential aspiring players. "Football does wonders in our community to help keep the boys in school and off the streets," said Dumisani Madondile, 42, a long-term Khayelitsha resident. With both education and employment opportunities limited for young people growing up there, a lot of importance is placed upon football to help keep them on track. Notorious for gang violence and its criminal subculture, Khayelitsha is in the top 10 areas for crime in the whole of South Africa, with nearly 3,500 contact crimes (192 of them murder) reported in the township during 2018. 'Scouts don't come here often - it's perceived as too dangerous' 'Legacy' is a popular buzzword in major tournament bids, but for the millions of people who live here, football remains an escape but not a route to a career. This is the kind of area - a mixture of formal and informal homes in a makeshift city of concrete and corrugated metal, sprawling across 'the flats' on Cape Town's outskirts - that was supposed to benefit from having football's showpiece event on its doorstep. As the school buses and work taxis return for the evening, countless players can be seen shuffling towards their matches and training sessions as the sun goes down.įootball is thriving but, despite the foundation of a Fifa Football for Hope Centre during the 2010 World Cup, and initiatives from local top-flight team Cape Town City FC, there is still a big gap between Khayelitsha and the rest of the football world.
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