It
has been interesting to listen to and read about commentaries with regards to
the appointment of Steve Komphela’s appointment as the Bafana Bafana Assistant
Coach. I must say, however, that I think Komphela’s appointment to the Bafana
set up will be a breath of fresh air and will add value to the technical team.
He has the knowledge and the ability of a master technician, but...
But
what is worrying me is that he too will find himself in Pitso Mosimane’s
situation because of our lack of development programmes. No appointment will
solve our national team’s problems. It is even worse if you consider the kind of
demands imposed on Mosimane.
The
poor man is expected to achieve things out of the ordinary. We have to be
realistic that without a vision and periodization in place, achieving the
targets set by our football authorities to be Afcon finalists and qualify for
the World Cup is a tall order for Mosimane. Change of the coach will not solve
our problems. The best coach in the world will fail with our national team and
that is a fact. Remember we had Carlos Alberto-Parreira.
Investment
in the development is crucial to our future on the continental and global
stage. We have the talent, but we need to put a 12 year plan in place if we are
to be a major force on the football stage. Note talent contributes only 20% of
any successful individual and the rest comes from hard work for both players
and coaches, with the latter given the support in education (training
methodology to suit our identity) and other related needs.
Every
region needs to have a “centre of excellence” for starters and the best talent
must be recruited and developed to meet the modern demands of football. This
has to start at U12 and be monitored to reach the highest level in performance.
Importantly, we need to develop our players within their strengths taking into
account their characteristics. We also need to adopt a national uniformed
approach that is visible from our national junior teams that will eventually
reflect on our national asset, Bafana.
It’s
not Mosimane’s fault that we are a laughing stock in continental and world
football. It is our failure to address “football development” in its totality.
To
SAFA’s credit it has put into place development programmes, which have had a
positive impact, but it needs to have a more structured approach in developing
players and coaches. The whole programme needs to be overhauled with regional
coordinators that share a common vision and drive the process with passion and
commitment. After all it is our collective responsibility that will put our
nation on the map.
By Katz Naidoo (SAFA
Coach Educator)
Original Story: http://goo.gl/xrDKY
