Protection of Minors (Academies)

At its meetings on December 18, 2008 and March 19, 2009, the FIFA Executive approved a number of amendments to their Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players (Protection of Minors) that are to take effect as of October 1, 2009. Article 19 and 19bis of this regulation have been placed on the list of articles that are binding at the national level and must be included, without amendment, in association regulations.
A copy of the Articles is attached. The Board of the CSA discussed the matter at its meeting on 11- 12 September to
determine the implications of this regulation change and to provide guidance to staff and Provincial Associations on the implementation.

Article 19bis requires that each national association is obliged to ensure that all academies without legal, financial or de facto links to a club:

a) run a club that participates in the relevant national championships; all
players shall be reported to the association upon whose territory the
academy operates, or registered with the club itself: OR

b) report all minors who attend the academy for the purpose of training to the
association upon whose territory the academy operates.

The President of the CSA is seeking clarification from FIFA as to the definition of
reporting as opposed to registration.

The Board, in recognizing the need to provide the information to FIFA, directed
that minors (defined as players under the age of 18 years) in academies without
links to a club will need to be registered with the Provincial Association.
Provincial Soccer Associations are required to advise their districts and all known
academies operating within their boarders that this process will have to be
undertaken to comply with the protection of minors outlined by FIFA.
Furthermore, the players are to be registered in accordance with the individual
Provincial By-laws and subject to the fees as already established for this
purpose.

Board of Directors
September 23, 2009-09-23
Re: Protection of Minors
Page 2

FIFA implementation date for national associations is 1 October 2009; however
the Board recognized that this timescale may provide short term difficulties for
Provincial implementation. It would be beneficial if Provincial Associations were
to be able to provide an assessment of the scope and scale of this undertaking to
enable the Board to be appraised when it next meets.

An Academy is defined by FIFA as ‘an organization or an independent legal
entity whose primary long term objective is to provide players with long term
training through the provision of the necessary training facilities and
infrastructure. This shall primarily include, but not be limited to, football training
centres, football camps, football schools, etc’. Individual Provincial Associations
will be required to determine what constitutes ‘long term training’ and what
qualifies as an academy in this regard.

In moving forward, Provincial Associations are requested to provide the following
information to the CSA Board: