South
Africans enjoy having meetings/Indabas in fancy hotels to consume loads of food
and drinks. We need resolutions with strict time frames.
SAFA Executive
The
highly-anticipated National Technical Conference is upon us, but is it going to
make any valuable difference to the current state of affairs in local football?
Small changes can bring big results. Talking and good plans is useless without
action. Firstly, how many people attending the upcoming conference train and
coach young players daily? Secondly, how many would train children daily
without expecting to be paid?
The first
thing that people need to understand is that development is an educational
process. Players from young age up to senior/professional level need structured
training and competitions suitable for their level.
Football
cannot be led by people, who talk but do not live or practice development. We
all come from communities. How many SAFA executives belong to clubs within
their communities? Are their own young boys and girls in structured football
programmes? If this conference can result in these executives leading by
example, then football will move forward.
The
conference must resolve to support and utilize the skills of those that are
dedicated to football. Football coaching just like teaching or nursing is a
vocation. We have failed with all the resources because of employing friends
and relatives. Money cannot do the work. There are too many people without any
history in coaching and youth development holding critical positions. Without
proper structures people will always abuse the system.
South
African football should develop a coaching syllabus that addresses our specific
needs and qualities. The present coach education system including its content
has failed the country. We have not produced any player of quality in world
football in the last 15 years. We have also not won - let alone qualified for -
any meaningful competition in our continent and internationally.
PSL clubs
should see themselves as part of SAFA. Bafana Bafana has failed because PSL
clubs and their coaches are not producing good players.
Players at
that level should be trained as well as those playing for the Barcelona ’s,
Manchester City
South
Africans enjoy having meetings/Indabas in fancy hotels to consume loads of food
and drinks. We need resolutions with strict time frames. It is also important
that we become accountable for the tasks given.
It is also
important that people learn to work with others. We do not need to be friends
to do a good job. Some of us are not interested in power and positions. We are
willing to help the game prosper in the dark corners of our country.
Lastly, the
National Technical Conference agenda should prioritize youth coach education,
elite youth development i.e. both boys and girls, the philosophy or style of
play, youth competitions, issues of age cheating in youth football, and general
junior and youth football training and competitions.
By Thabo Dladla (Former SAFA coach)
Original story: http: http://goo.gl/j2KZq
Email: editor@maximalfootball.com
