Jordaan believes the revamped U17 World Cup will help level the playing field with Europe

Nine of the 10 African countries that travelled to Qatar for the newly expanded 48-team U17 World Cup have advanced to the last 32 knockout phase, which begins tomorrow. 

South Africa is one of those countries and will play Japan on Saturday in the last 32 match. 

Jordaan says the vision of FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development Arsene Wenger is starting to pay off.

"And I think, that's what FIFA wants to achieve, that is what Arsene Wenger's vision is that this thing of the dominance of Europe must come to an end but it cannot come to an end if you don't fix from schools right up,” Jordaan said.

“We have an excellent schools team, our schools team are also COSAFA Champions, our U17 is clearly one of the best in our region and one of the best on the continent and now they are competing to establish their position in the world of football. 

“So, I think that Arsene Wenger and CAF, Patrice Motsepe, has focused on school football, youth football and African teams achieving at junior level because ultimately what he says is that I want an African champion of the World Cup. Morocco came close."

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The next Amajimbos team is also in line to qualify for next year’s World Cup, having already qualified for the 2026 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) U17 tournament in Morocco. 

The team was crowned as COSAFA Champions after brushing aside all their opponents in Zimbabwe two months ago. 

"The next U17 team, next year is again World Cup is already there and they played in Zimbabwe in the COSAFA Cup and they are the champions. So, this is not the U17 team that were the COSAFA champions, the team that played there, I think it's just one or two boys in this team that are already COSAFA Champions,” he added. 

“So, we can see that if we continue by developing players, we will sustain the growth path of the players and very soon we'll have a different Bafana and quality Bafana players who played in different categories."

Jordaan has singled out Bafana Bafana midfield kingpin Teboho Mokoena as a true example of a player who has progressed through all levels of development and international competitions, and is benefiting immensely from that experience.