FIVE STEPS OUT OF FOOTBALL WILDERNESS FOR KENYAN FOOTBALL There was a time Kenya was a stronger footballing nation than countries like Sudan, Malawi, Ethiopia, Botswana, Burkina Fasso just to mention but a few. Most of these nations have developed to an extent that we cannot match them anymore. Today Kenya can only face these teams as the underdog. When these nations were busy developing football structures Kenya wasted valuable years in federation wrangles. Very little is being done to help Kenya emerge from football wilderness. At some point if we ever decide to embark on a journey out of the wilderness, here are my five key areas that must be prioritized. YOUTH DEVELOPMENT When Marouane Fellaini was asked about the remarkable revival of Belgian football he answered “a lot of the squad had played together from a youth level. This familiarity had bred camaraderie and good understanding between the players.” Only two players are above 30 years of age in the current Belgian squad, a notable fact to be considered. Alex Ferguson built his dynasty at Manchester United using a very effective youth system. Barcelona have La Masia to thank for producing some of the world’s best players. Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroun, Egypt, Morocco are just some African nations that have applied a similar blueprint of success and the bottom – up approach has been paying huge dividends for these nations. If we do not have enough resources to build football academies we can use what we have in place, secondary schools as a breeding ground for young talent. The federation should come up with a programme of helping secondary schools to identify and develop talent. One way of doing this is by seconding trained coaches to selected secondary schools and colleges who will also act as scouts on the ground. Regular coaching clinics for secondary school games teachers is also another way of to ensure that young players are receiving the right training and coaching early in life. The federation will need to come up with a talent development programme similar to what the Germany Football federation, DFB introduced in 2003 with the aim of identifying promising youngsters and providing them with technical skills and tactical knowledge at an early age. The DFB talent development Programme covers 366 areas of Germany, and this impressive initiative caters for children aged 8 to 14 and helped along by 1,000 part-time DFB coaches, all of whom must hold the Uefa B licence and are expected to scout as well as train the players. The task of developing young talent and home grown players should not be left to clubs alone even though these players end up playing for clubs because it is the national team and the national game that eventually benefits from the home grown players. It’s also important to set up youth leagues at county levels run and managed by the federation. This will give more young players an opportunity to showcase their talent and expose them to real life competitive football. While working on developing youth football, we must ensure that the issue of age cheating is also addressed. There have been allegations that many coaches and football administrators collude with players in age cheating. It’s important that we ensure integrity and honesty in our game COACHING Kenya has a very small pool of trained and accredited coaches. We are heavily reliant on former footballers to fill the coaching gap. Unfortunately majority of these former footballers are not educated as football coaches. They are simply not qualified to be football coaches. In January 2009 CAF launched a coaching licensing system with the intention of providing guidelines for the profession in the African continent. It was also expect to organise African coaches according to their expertise and knowledge. The system was viewed as a platform for instilling professionalism into the coaching profession, ensure steady progression and to match standards with other confederations. The African soccer governing body had set 2013 as the target to have all club coaches certified under the system. Not so much emphasis has been placed on this certification. The federation needs to rethink its policies on coaching. If our game is to develop, deliberate and consistent efforts to improve and develop our coaching must be initiated. For starts the federation needs to set a minimum qualification for one to be allowed to coach in the Kenya Premier league. This will encourage more local coaches to pursue coaching education. The federation must train more and more local coaches. In turn these coaches will be in a position to identify and improve new talents both technically and tactically. In addition, a large pool of coaching talent will ensure more contact hours between players and coaches making it easier for the players to develop their game. Last year The South African Football Association (SAFA) coach education department together with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) offered the first ever CAF A Licence course to 60 qualified Level 3 coaches and SAFA instructors. This definitely went a long way in increasing the number of top level coaches in South Africa. Kenya should emulate such initiatives for the good of our game. INFRASTRUCTURE The quality of our football can only be as good as the qualities of our football facilities. We must endeavor to improve our facilities. We must provide better playing pitches. With the introduction of county governments this is a very achievable goal. A good example is the Machakos Kenyatta Stadium which has been refurbished to quite impressive standards. Kisumu Moi stadium is also coming up albeit at a snail pace. There have been promises to refurbish Kinoru Stadium in Meru as well as Kenyatta Stadium in Embu. Besides the major stadia, we should consider upgrading the local estate and school pitches since this is where many young players will kick their first ball in a competitive soccer game. This can be done with the cooperation of the private sectors and relevant NGO’s Other projects being funded under FIFA goal project like the National technical center which will house the federation’s offices and the national youth training center should be fast tracked to provide top class training center for the national teams as well hold courses for training of young players. URGENT HOUSE KEEPING AT THE FEDERATION The level of confusion and disorganization at the federation is appalling. Our football will not grow without the input of private sector in form of sponsorship. Therefore the federation must repackage itself and set out on aggressive mission to woo investors. There is no better way to start than putting an end to the continuous public squabbles within the federation. Both the KPL and the FKF must work together to improve the quality of our league in order to attract more local fan base to the stadium. The constant wrangles between elected officials must be sorted in the shorted time possible. Issues like corruption and hooliganism must be urgently addressed if we want to encourage the private sector to invest in our football. We must depoliticize the management of football and focus more on the development of the game. OFFICIATING “We must do something for the top referees. You can’t have non – professional referee in professional football’ – Sepp Blatter, FIFA President. It is important to recognize the role that officiating plays in development of the game. We must make effort to make sure that our officiating is up to scratch because the rules that govern the game of football are universal. Our teams and players must learn to play by the same rules of the game being used everywhere and officiating can play a key role in helping our players become more conversant with the rules of the game. Let us train more young and passionate referees. Let us make sure all aspects of our game are developing at par. #THERMKSHOW
Posted on: Fri, 16 May 2014 04:58:08 +0000
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