The Magic Ladies FC media platforms have had incredible growth since we launched them in July this year. There has been a lot of engagement and interaction across our various media channels since we bought the Milano Ladies SASOL League franchise at the start of the 2022 season. We felt it was time to answer some of your questions!
former Bafana player and now Magic Ladies FC Director of Coaching, George Dearnaley, gives us all the information.
What is the Magic Ladies football development program?
It is a football development program for female players (Girls Only), that focuses on developing the person and the player. My 30+ years’ experience in local football means I know that football can inspire positive change, and change lives for the better. I have seen it; I have lived it. So we want to create a safe space for girls, create access to our coaching blueprint, and help develop young people through football. Then it’s all about creating pathways and opportunities for players, whether that is to go and study, or to play professionally, or to work in the football industry – there are so many other business opportunities linked to football, not just playing and coaching. We want to be part of that development.
Why have you gone into womens football after so many years in mens football?
Thalea with African Champions trophy for Sundowns
I actually get asked that a lot. The truth is that I became disillusioned with mens football. It has become a ‘win at all costs’ business and when you only focus on results, you neglect development. Some people will do anything to win games, and that creates corruption and cheats. I don’t want to be a part of that. I started watching a lot more womens football when I started representing Banyana Banyana player Thalea Smidt, and I saw ‘pure’ football. I still haven’t seen a female player dive for a free kick – there’s almost an innocence about the women’s game, because it hasn’t become a ‘win at all costs’ business. I also saw areas of the game that I think can improve and I have some ideas of how to improve a few things. Most young girls have not been exposed to any development training, but with the Continental success of Banyana and with Sundowns being African champions, I think there is a lot more interest, and we want to be part of this interest, and play a role in improving the levels.
What are your plans for the Magic Ladies FC?
We originally planned on creating a development program first and then eventually either getting promotion to the Sasol league or buying a franchise. We had a massive delay in securing our own facility and couldn’t start our program and as time dragged on we weren’t quite sure what to do, and then a few weeks before the 2022 season started there was a Sasol franchise for sale… so we bought it! We couldn’t change the name at such short notice so we played as Milano Ladies this season. We only had 7 players registered the night before our 1st league match!! We managed to get 7 more cards on the Saturday morning, drove through to Stellenbosch for our 1st game and I still don’t know how… but we won 2-1. The next few games were a massive learning curve – we lost 0-4 and 0-8!!
But we improved a lot over the season and if there had been a Provincial award for most improved womens team, we would have won it! We only conceded a total of 5 goals in our last 6 games, and that included a 1-1 draw with a very good Spurs Ladies team that ended up winning our stream. They also equalized in the last minute.
So the plan now is to strengthen the Sasol squad – I believe it is important to have a top team that the younger players can be inspired and motivated by. We are a long way from challenging for the title, but we want to be more competitive, and develop better players. But our main objective is to grow the game. I think with the right facility, the right training program, the right environment, and the right people, we will attract young players and grow the numbers of young girls playing football.
I actually coached an U12 girls team in America in 1995 and I have watched from a distance how the game has grown in the USA; it is amazing to see millions of girls playing ‘soccer’ over there.
I also want to help women in football because I have a lot of experience in a lot of different parts of the game. Apart from my 10-year professional playing career, I have also coached for nearly 30 years. I was the publisher of Kick Off football magazine, I worked on both ETV and SuperSport, and I’ve done radio; I have done analysis and commentary; I’ve scouted across Africa; I’m now learning about player representation; I have worked with media networks and big sponsorship deals with big sponsors and I’ve also been a kit manager too! There is so much else to do in football.
Milano Ladies
Where are you based?
It has taken over a year to secure our home facility and we still have a lot to do. There is always resistance to new ideas, but we are working with good people and our home ground will be ready early in 2023. We will be based at the well-known Western Province Cricket Club (WPCC) in Rondebosch. We have invested a lot of funds into the upliftment of the field on Ave De Mist (next to the tennis courts) and look forward to hosting coaching clinics, coaching workshops, training sessions and matches there from February next year.
We have also got great relationships with Norway Parks & Rygersdal football clubs who have both very kindly afforded us use of their fields for winter training sessions and midweek games. And we are also creating relationships with some of the schools that are within a few kilometres of our field – there are a total of 23 schools within 7 kilometres of our field!
Who is involved?
I sold my shares in the Magic FC ABC Motsepe franchise a few years ago to Miles October. I think he has missed me, because he recently sold the ABC franchise to City Kingz and has joined forces with me again, although he is mostly in the background doing fundraising, marketing and operations. He will be the Chairman of our club.
I am currently heading up the technical side of the project as Director of Coaching, but my aim is to find female coaches that we can work with, help them develop their skills, and then hand over when the time is right (I’m getting old!)
Our management team consists of legendary South African women’s football guru Fran Hilton-Smith (Program Advisor), former Bafana GK Coach and well known media personality Farouk Abrahams (GK Coach), highly qualified Biokinetist Katherine Poole (Strength & conditioning coach), experienced local football administrator Rifaat Smith (admin), and young rising media star Tarren Saunders, who heads up all our media. Long time professional player Howie Davids has been assisting me with coaching and we are in talks with a few experienced football administrators about working together.
Fran Hilton-Smith & Tarren Saunders
Our development program is also supported by our Section 18 (A) PBO charity PlaySport4Life and the Football Magic Program. Both programs are non-profits and committed to improving the lives of kids in local communities through the power of sport.
Lastly, we have an amazing partnership with International football charity, Global United FC. This German-based charity uses football to promote environmentally friendly programs, and also has links to a top Bundesliga club (creating pathways and opportunities!)
We love football, we love our planet!
Can you tell us more about your training development program?
Of course we can, it’s not rocket science. We believe in ‘open source’ coaching – that is sharing ideas and information. We also want to start a regular monthly coaching forum for female coaches where we can share what we know, what we think works, and be a resource for young coaches who are learning the game.
We start by using the TIPS model to breakdown the qualities of a player (Technical, Insight, Personality and Speed), and can then work on individual programs to develop weak areas of the game and improve the strengths of a player. We focus on trying to develop good people through the platform of football.
We believe character and attitude are the most important out of all the qualities. I know it sounds so obvious, but most coaches will prefer a player with a great work ethic, great attitude, great commitment and discipline over a fantastic talent that has very little of the above qualities. If we find talented players who have ‘character’ weaknesses, we will do our best to improve those.
We also use a training concept known as ‘Deep practice’ – lots of football actions in competitive small-sided match situations played at high intensity. Many mistakes = accelerated learning. I am a big fan of small sided games (5 v 5 + 1; 7 v 7 + 2 etc), because you want players to get a lot of touches and have a lot of opportunities to make decisions both attacking and defending. I have watched U12 boys playing 11 v 11 on a full field and if one team is stronger than the other the defenders of the strong team just stand around next to the attackers of the weak team – nobody learns anything from that.
We also embrace technology and science and have a video analysis partner as well as an expert strength and conditioning coach. We also have access to the ETA gym at our facility and will help educate our players on the importance of nutrition, sleep and hydration.
Kat the strength and conditioning expert
What is the future of womens football in South Africa?
Firstly, we are very lucky to have Fran Hilton-Smith as part of our program. Fran first saw the opportunities for local womens football in the late 1980’s and has been a champion and activist for womens football for over 30 years.
The success of Banyana Banyana over the last 5-6 years was Fran’s vision realized and it’s incredible that African Champion, Coach Desiree Ellis was one of Fran’s first selections in the original Banyana squad all those years ago.
International Womens’ football has been on an incredible upward trajectory for the last 12 years but it’s only in very recent years there has been a massive increase in support and interest in the local Womens’ game. SASOL have been the biggest supporter of local female football for many years, but now we are seeing more corporates getting involved, Hollywood Bets have invested substantially in the new pro league, and the big technical brands like adidas and Puma are definitely a lot more interested in the womens game.
I think the PSL clubs will all have womens teams within the next few years so there will be opportunities for the best local players; the Varsity Cup will grow and Universities and Colleges will be handing out more bursaries and scholarships to attract talented female players; girls High School football will grow and the top schools will also hand out bursaries and scholarships to attract talented players, and this means that girls will be rewarded for their football talents. The best players will end up in Europe or America where they can make a name and a career for themselves. It is really an amazing time to be a young girl that plays football because great career opportunities will be available to more of them in a short time.
