Moodley Shifts Focus To Youth Development After Premiership Setbacks

Having been unsuccessful in his attempts to secure a Betway Premiership status for a football club, Durban businessman Roy Moodley is now aiming to unearth future football stars through his foundation.

His goal is to nurture young talent who will eventually play in top-flight football.

Moodley’s bid to acquire the status of Royal AM fell through. He told Sportswire that he had agreed to purchase the club, but the Premier Soccer League (PSL) could not agree to his conditions. At the time of the proposed acquisition in April, Royal AM still had 19 games to play before the end of May.

Moodley requested an extension to June, citing the impossibility of playing 19 matches in just six weeks.

Furthermore, Moodley, who had set aside to spend R50 million to purchase the status, asked the league not to relegate the team. Instead, he proposed that they be awarded draws and that two teams, along with the Motsepe Foundation Championship winners, be promoted to create a 17-team league for the following season.

He suggested that two teams would then be relegated at the end of that season, with the 15th-placed team entering the playoffs, as is the norm. Despite the PSL exploring this unconventional move, it was ultimately rejected.

With all his proposals rejected, the PSL season concluded with 15 teams, each having played 28 matches. The points Royal AM had accumulated in their 11 games were expunged.

Moodley then attempted to purchase the status of SuperSport United but was a few seconds too late, as it had already been acquired by Gayton McKenzie’s son to form Siwelele Football Club.

The Roy Moodley Legacy Cup: A Vision for a Crime-Free Future

Despite these setbacks, the Durban politician is currently focused on empowering the youth through the Roy Moodley Legacy Cup.

This initiative aims to get young people off the streets and contribute to creating a crime-free country. The inaugural Roy Moodley Legacy Cup is scheduled to take place at HoyPark later this month.

The winner will walk away with R30000, the losing finalist with R15000. Two semi-finalists will get R5000 and R1200 per day for transport for each LFA.  

“The only way you can empower the youth is by doing something they love and keeping them busy,” Moodley told Sportswire.

“We have to keep them off the street and make sure they don’t end up as rapists, drug addicts, or even gangsters. The more you keep them busy, the more they stay off the street. That was actually my vision because the youth is the future of the country.”

Moodley emphasized the importance of supporting young talent: “How do we create the future of the country if we don’t support the youth? Most talented and skilled young people have ways of improving themselves, but they lack resources because they come from poor backgrounds, and some of their parents aren’t even working. But they have talented children.”

He continued, “If we don’t do something for them, we are creating a bad future for this country. We are going to turn them into criminals, and it is so easy to turn them into criminals if we don’t provide them with resources. This is basically why I opted to support the SAFA initiative [in eThekwini] to create a better future for our children.”

A Lifelong Passion for Sport

Like many boys growing up, football was a significant part of Moodley’s life. “When I was young, I used to play a lot of football. I would play for a team called Chatsworth United, and I was a striker there,” Moodley revealed.

“I still remember then, I was number nine, and I was a talented footballer. As time went by, I got married, I got into other activities — business and things like that — and here I am.”

“I’m still supporting the sport that will keep the children away from the street,” he added.

Moodley affirmed his continued love for sports: “I watch football all the time. Football is my life. Well, sport is my life — football, cricket, rugby, and golf. But if we have resources, we must be able to plough back into the youth, and we must be able to make this country a crime-free country. We can’t depend on the government all the time.”