Varsity football has a way to go

Cape Town - Bradley Carnell is currently the coach of the University of Johannesburg men’s football team, but he believes that the Varsity Cup is limited in its developmental capacity.

Carnell led his UJ side to the final of last year’s varsity Cup where they lost to the University of Pretoria.

His side will, however, not play in this year’s tournament after failing to qualify under difficult circumstances.  

“I will be completing my third year with UJ in September, but I didn’t get involved just for the Varsity Cup campaign,” he told Sport24.

“We had a situation where we flew to Cape Town on the Sunday to play Varsity Cup on the Monday night and then on Tuesday we had to play our qualification campaign for the next season of Varsity Cup.

“Only two out of eight teams from last year are playing in this year’s Varsity Cup.

“Tuks, last year’s winners, nearly didn’t make it as well, they went through only after a penalty shootout. But I believe it is going to change.”

The 2015 edition of the Varsity Cup kicks off towards the end of next month. Carnell was very realistic when asked about the potential that university football has to unearth young players.

“It is a decent platform but I don’t think it has much really in terms of the developmental side of football – I coach men, I’m not coaching young boys.

“It’s more of a stepping stone for guys that have been lost in the system.”