23-07-2025
BT Football Academy didn't follow due process when securing trip to Spain for players
CAPE TOWN - The Western Cape Sport Department said that the BT Football Academy didn't follow due process when securing a trip to Spain for 34 junior players from Cape Town.
The players, accompanied by four coaches, took part in an international football tournament in San Sebastian, Spain, earlier in July.
But the team was abandoned when trip organisers failed to book return tickets home after the event.
The stranded children and their coaches have been supported by expats living in Portugal to get them back in the country.
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Western Cape Cultural Affairs and Sport MEC Ricardo Mackenzie rerouted a work trip in Europe to meet the stranded team in Portugal this week.
Mackenzie said it was there that he discovered this was not the first time that BT Football Academy teams had been left in the lurch.
"Was speaking with the coaches last night at dinner, they informed me this is not the first time this has happened by the way, it's the first time parents are complaining and obviously the social media campaign. They also told me a story about how they were stuck in Dubai and how they had to find money to get home at one occasion."
Public donations driven by the Tracey Lange Cares Initiative have secured enough funds to pay for the group's extended stay in Lisbon, food and tickets back to Cape Town.
Over the weekend, nine players and a coach arrived back home.
The remaining 25 teens and three coaches still in Lisbon are set to return on Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon.
