Charlton Athletic's SA connection
12 November 2003
English Premier League club Charlton Athletic is home to two of South African football's most loved exports, Mark Fish and Shaun Bartlett.
On Saturday 8 November, Charlton celebrated its South African connection when the club tackled Fulham at The Valley on a day the club called South Africa Day. It’s a connection that extends all the way to Alexandra township in Johannesburg.
Matt Wright, reporting on the Charlton Athletic website, said the Alexandra connection is all down to the club's "Red, White and Black" campaign that is into its second decade and targets racism.
Charlton, together with British Airways, the South African Police Service, the Metropolitan Police and Bristol's John Cabot Technical College, is busy with a programme in Alexandra that includes bringing coaching to the youth, as well as a schools' education course.
There are three parts to the
programme. Naturally, one of those is football coaching, with 18 South African coaches doing the English Football Association's Level One coaching course - the first time it has ever been run outside of Britain. Once those coaches have qualified, they will be able to start and run community-based football clubs and leagues.
Then there is a youth development programme that sees the Metropolitan Police teaming up with their South African counterparts, the SAPS, and the John Cabot Technical College from Bristol in bringing it to Alexandra. The course focuses on citizenship, health education and information technology.
John Cabot looks after the third part of the programme. The college, as part of its ongoing charity work in conjunction with British Airways and Unicef, is working to empower township dwellers in fields such as literacy, computer technology, sewing and textiles.
Charlton’s efforts include giving every child
that attends the club's coaching courses a Charlton goodie bag that includes a special "Addicks in Africa" poster. Alexandra has also been receiving football kits, balls and other equipment.
For the South Africa Day clash against Fulham, Charlton donated more than 1 000 tickets to local community groups for their Red, White and Black Day celebrations, and 200 South Africans joined the community groups for the Premier League match.
The day included a celebration of the cultural diversity of the Rainbow Nation, with a 250-strong choir, made up of pupils from local schools, singing specially written songs to promote anti-racism, while the Vox Simba Choir performed four songs before kick-off, including the South African national anthem.
Former Bafana Bafana player Mark Fish said that since joining Charlton, "I have been amazed at the extent of the club's work in its community, and I am proud to support that work, both locally and back in my homeland.
"It's
something that is very important to me because of the historical links between the club and South Africa and the community work that the club's been doing over there", Fish said.
"What they’re doing in South Africa is extremely worthwhile because there are a lot of under-privileged kids who aren't getting the chances, in football and also in education and development."
SouthAfrica.info reporter
| 
