Introduction

The Gauteng Development League (GDL) has been created by the South African Football Association’s (SAFA) provincial structure in Gauteng to provide a forum for scouting at the Under-13 to Under-19 level.

Gauteng is a hotbed of football talent but scouting for the junior national in the past has been haphazard and hindered by a lack of structure in local competitions. 

The ‘Big 3’ in the South African Premier Soccer League (PSL), Mamelodi Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates all come from Gauteng, as well as several other topflight clubs and the league can act as a feeder system to these clubs. 

But over and above watching players with the naked eye, there was very little data that could be used to compare and scout them, and so a lot of talent went unnoticed.

The work carried out

The GDL matches are broadcast and streamed on the SuperSport Schools television channel and mobile app.

Without the resources to administer the process, GDL as the rights holder entrusted TALNETS AG to work directly with SuperSport as a technology and data analysis partner, with analysis of the matches in the Under-17 and Under-19 leagues. 

The fact these matches were broadcast by SuperSport removed the need for GDL to acquire any hardware, which is normally the first step for a data-driven talent identification strategy.

Implementation

The initial engagement was on-site where we got more context as to the operations of GDL and SuperSport. 

This was also an important step for TALNETS AG given the nuanced approach to talent scouting in Africa and the potential future requests from our partner clubs in Europe. 

We were able to provide context and verify processes, so our partners had full confidence in our remote processes. 

After match day four, TALNETS AG was able to provide the GDL team with access to the platform to use the data and pull player profile cards. Access to the platform was also given to all 18 teams in the league.

Outcomes

With analysis running weekly, TALNETS AG was able to provide individual digital player profile cards with statistics for each player in all of the 36 teams from both age groups. 

With the quick filtering capabilities of the platform, SAFA can use the platform to identify players for various target positions. The clubs can track their players’ performance to quickly identify candidates to move up to senior teams and those to make available for the national and international scouting market.