Morgan Piek

Bloemfontein – Over the past few years we’ve become used to seeing the resurgence of varsity sport on of television screens as well as at the various tertiary institutions across the country. This morning Varsity Sports launched its' latest initiative – Varsity Football.

South African university soccer got a major boost on Monday, when the South African Football Association gave its blessing to the launch of the brand-new Varsity Football Challenge.

SAFA wanted reassurance that the nine-week competition has the backing of University Sports South Africa before throwing its weight behind it.

It follows the massive success earlier this year of Varsity Athletics and Varsity Hockey, and that of Varsity 7’s rugby and Varsity Beach Volleyball, which were launched in December 2012.

A Varsity Netball series will be launched in September of this year as well.

Two of the strongest universities taking part will be Tuks and Wits, both of who have representative teams in the Premier Soccer League. They may field there fully professional players, as long as they are registered students studying full time courses.
The competition will run for a minimum of 10-years.

As from Monday, the 22nd of July the Varsity Football competition will be played over the next nine weeks, with eight teams competing.

Kovies coach, Godfrey Tenoff, who played professional football in the USA for 10-years told Ofm Sport at the tournament launch, they are delighted to be involved in a competition such as things are looking forward to their first match on Monday evening.

Tenoff and his coaching staff selected their 25-man squad out of a 107 hopefuls.

The most interesting aspect of the competition is that winners the tournament do not automatically qualify for spot in the following years tournament. All eight teams playing in the tournament need to qualify at the USSA Week.