African football is like a child getting Ds BY TIONE NDHLOVU The two things I try to stay away from as a writer are politics and football, I just think these two issues have a way of arousing people’s emotions to such an extent that they can kill. However, I could not resist the temptation of talking about football when I watched the ‘sport On’ program for Thursday 03 July 2014 on TV1. I love soccer and support Africa all the way, and when any African team is playing I am obviously going to root for them. Though, this season has been a rather daunting period, truth be told I think many supporters were expecting much more, this could be the year an African team just got the world cup right? Or maybe not. What stresses me is not that they didn’t get as far as I hoped, but it’s what the so called soccer analysis and observers keep saying that is making me mad. No one is bold enough to call the performance meagre, I mean, let me ask except the fact that you are African how many of you would bet on any of the African teams based on skill and that fact that they will definitely win? If your answer is none of them, then let’s call a spade for what it is ‘African football is like a child getting Ds at school’ and we keep telling that child they are fine only if they can find a less challenging opponent, really! What parent tells a child that, and mostly where are you going to find a less challenging team in the world cup qualifiers? This is the world cup people not COSAFA, we may be good in the regionals but internationally we are not and as long as we keep telling this child and hoping that they will be paired with a weak team we are killing and not building. We ought to undress this middling spirit and learn what needs to be learnt, some people have argued that in other continents young footballers start being groomed from very tender ages, well in as much as that maybe so, we ought not to blame it on grooming. We have to stand and do the best, now. Instead of asking what we should do in order to be better in future, we should ask ourselves what it is we are not doing now! We complain that they is no seriousness in preparation, lack of discipline and tact yet when this child gets a zero percentage in performance we reward them with roses, chocolates and Ferraris. What we are doing is telling them that it’s okay to be mediocre, that just their presence at international level is all we need. No my Zambia, my Africa that is not all we need because even in the past we have had that but are we going to keep appearing in the world cup as a statistics. We are like the fig tree that does not give fruit, and even when it has been watered, tendered and pruned, year in year out, season in season out, it is at the same level. When are we going to move from this complacence? It is not like we are inadequate or not good enough, we are just too comfortable with being average. In its own way average is good, of which if we have accepted it as the best then let’s stop sugar coating that we expect better results. But if we have not; we do not tell a child bringing Ds home it’s okay and that they did what they could. No! We tell them we want As and if we send them back they better bring home an A.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 05:40:24 +0000
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