The Collingwood Football Club has taken up the Australian Football League’s offer and opportunity of growing football in South Africa.

In 2009, the club will play a pre-season match in Newlands Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa on 7 February 2009 against the West Coast Eagles. 

The game will attract an expected 15,000 spectators and over two million TV viewers back in Australia.

The province that Collingwood has secured through the AFL to develop is the Western Cape Province (Cape Town). The team travelled there this year for a two week pre-season camp.

Collingwood’s long term aim is to travel to South Africa each year to provide community clinics to develop football and bring something back to the community.

A secondary goal is to develop a potential pool of players that could one day play for the club via a Talent ID program in association with the Sports Science Institute of South Africa.

For the past two years Collingwood has been working with the AFL establishing a successful footyWild program in Cape Town and is now looking for partners to assist in growing a range of community development programs and activities including education, health and employment programs, scholarship and sports participation programs, annual community camps and exhibition AFL matches in the Western Cape.

Utilising Collingwood’s experience in engaging at a grassroots community level, a holistic football program has been developed based on the fundamental pillars of participation, youth, education and job creation.

An investment to South Africa’s youth of today could one day see young South Africans playing football at the highest level in Australia.

Collingwoodfc.com.au will be covering the trip when it commences in early February, 2009. 

Click HERE to find out how to get involved with this unique opportunity.