8000 expected for South African Practice Match
It seems the AFL is making it’s biggest push into another country yet, with the organizes of the South African practice match between Cartlon and Fremantle hopeful of reaching 8000 fans for the game.
In an interview with World Footy News AFLSA’s Operations Manager Joel Kelly has said:
“Getting exposure to the game at the highest level is an enormous boost for the code in South Africa - it is all well and good to teach the skills at grass roots but until young South Africans see the game played in the flesh, it will always be hard to establish that unbridled excitement that we readily associate with AFL - for the local FootyWild kids to see their heroes in the townships through the AFL community camps that Fremantle and Carlton will run in the North West and Gauteng respectively, then for those same kids to actually see them play live, is an incredible opportunity that we, as Australians, would probably take for granted - these kids will not and we are genuinely excited about what the AFL club visits will do for the code in South Africa in the longer term”.
It is some what of a reality check when you read this kind of thing, I mean it is just a practise match to us and something we take for granted but for the people of South Africa it is a huge event and will be broadcast live on South African cable channel SuperSport 2. Quite amazing really and something that a lot of us here in Australia can’t really relate to.
Read the full article at World Footy News here.
African football is coming up