MultiChoice Diski Challenge

MultiChoice has released more details of its partnership with South African football to form a PSL Reserve League.

The MultiChoice Diski Challenge is MultiChoice’s flagship corporate responsibility programme. The programme consists of three core elements:

• A 16-team development league in partnership with the PSL which will fast track the development of young players into the PSL league
• Life skills and leadership development of the young players
• Up to 43 internships for aspiring content producers at SuperSport gaining on field experience in broadcasting, running a weekly magazine show, as well as an opportunity to receive academic scholarships

The MultiChoice Diski Challenge

The MultiChoice Diski Challenge consists of 16 teams, split into two groups of eight teams each, which are representative of the general PSL.

MultiChoice Diski Challenge: Group A – Kaizer Chiefs, Moroka Swallows, SuperSport United, University of Pretoria, Bloemfontein Celtic, Maritzburg United, Polokwane City, Ajax Cape Town

MultiChoice Diski Challenge: Group B – Orlando Pirates, Mamelodi Sundowns, Bidvest Wits, Mpumalanga Black Aces, Platinum Stars, Free State Stars, AmaZulu, Chippa United

The two groups play each other in an eight team competition that comprises of group stages, quarter finals, semi-finals and finals. The rules and regulations of this league are determined by the PSL.

READ: MultiChoice to revive Reserve League

The programme will kick off on the weekend of 13 September 2014 and wrap up by March 2015. A total of 66 matches will be played.

The winning team will receive
• The MultiChoice Diski Challenge trophy (rotating)
• Gold medals
• A trip to Holland for a 4-day training camp at the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB). They will also play friendly games against Bundesliga opponents and Germany.

The first and second runners up will receive Bronze and Silver medals respectively.

Football player development

The league will provide a platform for young players to showcase their talent and fast track their transition into professional football. The programme will also focus on football player development through player tracking, profiling and media training.

Players will have an opportunity to interact with football legends and receive life and leadership skills training during the course of the programme. Two life skills workshops will be conducted for all the participating players across all 16 teams at the festival weekends.

The first workshop will be conducted in KZN following festival weekend 1 with 8 teams and the second will be held similarly following festival weekend 2 in Cape Town with the remaining 8 teams.

MultiChoice will offer each team an opportunity to nominate three players to attend 7-day leadership development programme to build their leadership capacity at the end of the competition in March 2015.

MultiChoice will offer up to 30 players who have an interest in broadcast careers an opportunity to attend a one week career conference at the MultiChoice campus in Randburg. The conference will offer the players in-depth exposure to career paths in the broadcast environment and will include panel discussions with our executives, engineers, producers and technicians.

Sports production internships

The MultiChoice Diski Challenge gives upcoming content producers the chance to get on field experience as the crew for the league as part of a SuperSport content production internship. These young producers will also receive mentoring and coaching from experienced producers and engineers. This aspect of the program aims to attract female interns over time.

Up to 43 production interns will be part of the production teams across the value chain in the production of the content for television broadcast on a rotational basis as production assistants, assistant producers, directors, EVS operators, graphics, camera operators etc.

The interns will also be required to set up and produce a weekly magazine show to follow the programme for the year.

SuperSport will be responsible for all the content production including the recruitment, management and training of production interns for the production of the live content and magazine show.

MultiChoice will also offer five fully paid academic scholarships to qualifying players and interns as a further means to professional development and advancement.

Broadcasting the MultiChoice Diski Challenge

SuperSport will be the primary carrier of the games on the DStv platform. Of the 66 games at least 30 games will be televised with some live and others on delayed basis depending on channel scheduling.

MultiChoice will also give community TV channels on its DStv platform the opportunity to broadcast the televised games from the MultiChoice Diski Challenge live, thereby increasing the exposure of the young players and allowing their communities to follow their journeys and experience their triumphs. Community TV channels will have the option to cover the games that will not be broadcast by SuperSport.