Here you go you daily dosage :-) Devil Take The Hindmost: The AFF Suzuki Cups Duty Of Care To Non Qualifiers by Matt Riley For all the tensions between European Union countries, there is an overarching agreement (the Maastricht Treaty) that underpins how each country, whether industrial powerhouse Germany or the economic PIGS basket cases of Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain, must contribute. Everyone is required to give based on their economic health within the collective. This has jangled a very raw nerve for the United Kingdom after a bill landed on the doormat of Number Ten for two billion Euros, due in three weeks. But, for all the grandstanding by Prime Minister David Cameron, he signed up to the agreement and this is the end point of a relationship where the strongest pay more to support the weakest. This keeps the loose confederation of states working (despite a seeming reward for failure) and gives those struggling nations time and support to improve their standing within the group. This is the approach that the ASEAN nations need to adopt if the AFF Suzuki Cup is to build meaningful forward momentum. Which brings us to Brunei, Timor Leste and Cambodia. Whilst Timor Leste wont be members of ASEAN in the first phase, their application to the EU of South East Asia was welcomed in 2011, so they may well join later. In the AFF Suzuki Cup qualifying games last month, Brunei failed to register a point, but three of their four defeats were by two goals and their loss to Cambodia was by one. So it is not like Thai Division One team Sriracha Banbungs thirty four game campaign which brought three draws, no wins and a minus seventy one goal difference. Second from bottom Timor Leste collected four points (including a creditable draw with table-toppers Myanmar) whilst Cambodia came even closer with two wins, six goals and six points. So there is plenty of work to do, but not a million miles still to travel. There is also a message to send: countries that fail are not forgotten. Their non qualification should be the start of long term support, not the end of their usefulness to the competition. The coaching staff from the three countries should be invited to the main competition with access to fellow coaches from all the teams and use the event as an extended professional development exercise. They can focus especially on Cambodia and Myanmar as the two teams in their group that got through and draw up an action plan based on what they did to achieve that. These three non qualifiers also need meaningful support from the two countries who have dominated the AFF Suzuki Cup. To encourage collegiality, making Thailand and Singapores league teams available for friendlies before qualification matches would be a good start. Brunei came into their campaign on the back of no warm up games, Timor Leste had one friendly against Thai regional league team Cha Choeng Sao, whilst Cambodia had a comprehensive warm up campaign with seven games in the two months leading up to the qualifying process. They played a mixture of national teams like Malaysia and Indonesia as well as scratch teams like African Footballers In Cambodia; a sequence that serves as a model to the other two. But of course matches cost money: Cambodias visits to Malaysia, Indonesia and Chinese Taipei cost more than some football associations could afford. This is where ASEAN needs to lead from the front. An EU-style centralised fund where revenues from the biennial tournament and contributions from each nation are divided up based on developmental needs may, when thinking about Brussels, seem frightening in a region not renowned for financial transparency. To add to the feeling of unease this formula would give Brunei the lions share, something unpalatable to some as their impoverished FA are based in an oil-rich country but, just like David Cameron, painful episodes in an agreed environment of collegiality must be allowed to slide. The advantage of an ASEAN fund is that, unlike the open mouthed and bailout-gorging Greek economy, ASEAN football countries want to increase their rank to, unlike the European PIGS, receive less money from a central fund and generate more of their own from increased interest in their success. Giving extra friendly matches is a step in the right direction, but the finalists from 2012 also need to make their plentiful resources available. For Thailand, German physio Andy Schillinger achieves far better results from injuries and better injury prevention than many others. He has lectured on a wide range of subjects relating to his role and is so highly valued by the players for his holistic approach to their wellbeing that some join the national squad even when not selected to get his advice and feel his healing hands. Singapore, as the only First World country in the region, has a great deal of advice to offer about planning, transparency and oversight (unlike their colleagues in Thailand mired in murky political infighting). This young nation state knows how a small country can fight above its weight and that is what Brunei and Timor Leste need to learn. The 2014 AFF Suzuki Cup stands on the threshold of history as the last tournament before the ASEAN economic region opens its doors. Trade leaders and politicians want these ten disparate countries to shed their feelings of inferiority to Australia in the East and Japan in the West and use their massive collective population of six hundred million to create a unified political and commercial New Power. The AFF Suzuki Cup can be the vanguard of showing that, far from a sleepy corner of South-East Asia, we are a young and dynamic rising force. Football can celebrate the strong, support the weak and develop the collective using the highest standards of agreed professional practice. There will be painful points along the way, but if the process was an easy one what would Nigel Farage do all day?
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 08:56:20 +0000
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