Durban - While administration at Anfield Road overseas could be running smoothly, the Liverpool Football Academy in Durban has had a bumpy ride.
The academy closed its doors last month, leaving parents angry and their children disappointed, but it has opened under a new name, Euro Soccer.
The Liverpool football development model was well received during its launch in Durban two years ago. It was described as a brilliant business model which would offer soccer skills to boys wanting to enhance their game. But its sudden closure has left many parents baffled.
Barbara Chapman of Pinetown blamed the management for letting things fall apart. She said most parents were upset because they enrolled their kids at the academy with an understanding that it was linked with the soccer giant Liverpool football club.
“There is a lot of disillusion and anger. I am exceptionally upset with the closure of the academy. I blame management for this mess. Kids are very embarrassed and the number has dropped drastically”, she said.
Chapman said she had opted to keep her 14-year-old son Gareth at the academy with its new name, but with the same management structure.
“My son’s passion for the game has compelled him to stay at the academy. We also decided to stay on because of the coaches who are loyal to the game,” Chapman said.
Newlands East father, Preston Brisset, whose son and nephew left the academy earlier this year, said they were not satisfied with the administration.
“My boys did not learn much; their game did not improve. I opted to take them out of the facility. It was used as a vehicle to make money. That is why it collapsed the way it did. I fail to understand, with about 160 kids paying R700 a month, how it could be insufficient to run a sustainable academy after paying coaches and renting the community sports ground,” Brisset said.
He said this had tarnished the Liverpool brand because they should have ensured that their project was handled properly.
Chief executive of the Liverpool Academy, CJ Benjamin, who renamed the soccer development training programme, referred questions to its director Lyndon Barends.
Barends said they experienced slow growth in numbers which had affected their budget severely.
He also blamed the poor economy and the rand/pound exchange rate as other factors which had led to their failure to pay Liverpool the fee to run the academy. He did not respond to how much the Durban outfit had to pay the English team.
Barends said they struggled with the cost of keeping a Liverpool club academy coach in the country.
“We have experienced administration challenges with staff. In short the business model didn’t work,” Barends said briefly.
A former coach at the academy, Marvin Oaks, said he was one of the scores of coaches who had not been paid by the academy.
“I decided to walk away. I am not bitter; I just decided to cut off ties with the management.
It is irrelevant to fight for it because who is going to pay me? I feel sorry for parents and kids who have lost out, it is sad,” Oaks said.
Sunday Tribune