SAFCA Nkangala media release

South Africa Football Coaches Association (SAFCA) recently launched regional structures which in turn have the mandate to unveil LFA structures, in a meeting in Kwagga C, Thembisile Hani LFA, on the 8th November 2014.

The media briefing will take place at the Protea Hotel Conference Hall, Cnr Jellicoe and Beatie Streets, Emalahleni on 02 January 2015 at 15H00.

This press conference will follow a meeting that will map a way forward for the organisation of coaches with a strategy expected to lead the way for successful development programs. 

Previous structures came and went without any meaningful developments or any knowledge of their existence or programs.

As valuable stakeholders in the community development, the meeting would mean nothing without your valuable presence, which is why we cordially invite you to attend this very important Media

According to the SAFCA Nkangala Region Chairman, Keutsepilemang Ndebele, the media conference will follow a meeting of the local federation Technical Officers and the Emalahleni coaches, who are expected to unveil their structure.

 

2015 will be best

This beame a year that ended well. We managed to operate a schools program called Soccer 101, registered a football academy - e-Diski Football Academy, and set up coaches structures at regional and local federation levels.

The next season will see coach development programs and the full operation of the academy to professional levels as well as participating in national and international scenes.

Trusting you had a merry Christmas. Wishing you a Happy New Year.

Promoting the future of coaches

In the last two weeks, I met 22 coaches in my town in two separate groups. I still have a long itinerary to do so with many other willing coaches. Details of the meetings will be forwarded to the relevant authorities for the sake of coach education and development.

Generally, there is animosity and mistrust at lower leagues. The coaches are owners and coaches of their clubs, and then few are elected into offices of authority to run the affairs of others. The suspicions of working in their own interests at the detriment of others are rife. It reminded of a question I always poised; how a huge city like this one loses teams into LFA leagues.

You may know this story. Three greedy brothers left their rural home to look for greener pastures in the city. Upon their arrival, they could not believe their fortune, stumbling upon a bag full stuffed with crisp notes of hard cash. Since they were very hungry from their sojourn, the youngest was sent to buy food.

He bought the best food, probably fried chicken, and poisoned it. Arriving at the brothers, they stood up, grabbed and killed him on the spot. Before they shared the money, they ate the poisoned food and all died. Along came a foreigner running away from xenophobic attacks, picked the bag and smile all the way to the bank.

Unless men work together, all lose. Football success is directly proportional to the positive input of all stakeholders. The state of football affairs here is dire but solutions are simple, though long term. The obvious challenge borders around the bad experiences of the past.

The consequence of the broken promises is the increased number of naysayers. Many do not even believe they are breathing, no matter how much one tries to prove it to them. The starting point would be basic education school and then life skills to many coaches.

It becomes apparent how successful negative football has been over the years, and how much energy and power is necessary to instil football coach education. It is not a one-night stand, but a long and solid marriage that can build our game to its true potential.

Football coaches need to invest in themselves

(Courtesy of KickOff)

Watching Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs play, most Absa Premier League teams for that matter, it is easy to see the backgrounds of these players lacks fine details required to play well at that level. Furthermore, how much coaching contribute in formulating attacking patterns of the country’s biggest teams, remains to be seen.

One African coach was on my case after the 2010 Fifa World Cup opening match, South Africa versus Mexico. His point was that the best South African player leading to the tournament could not control the ball, not once, not twice. In all cases, losing great scoring opportunities that could have put the match to bed, before Simphiwe Tshabalala scored and after he did, and before the Mexican goal as well as after. Just the conduction of the ball, choice of controlling surface and direction of the touch was enough to conclude that our best player was bad. (and so were his coaches).

Kaizer Chiefs thrive more on their superior defensive behaviour rather than the incisive penetrating patterns. The teams swing hammers at them until they cannot lift their arms and then get battered. As to why the defence is that solid, it is the foreign elements comprising the European nature of the English coach, Stuart Baxter, local players with foreign experience and the massive destruction efforts of bulldozing Zimbabwean anchor, Willard Katsande.

Katsande, like the rest of the best of the South Africa’s central midfielders over the years, comes from Zimbabwe’s development production responsible for products like Tinashe Nengomashe and Ezrom Nyandoro, just to name the recent like for like. The northern neighbours’ systems are flawed but are streets ahead of their local counterparts in many aspects.

In Zimbabwe, each city or town has a strong and active junior committee that is responsible for the fixtures, referees appointment and competitions. The same goes with the schools’ program. The massive differences lie in the hunger to do well by the Zimbabwean coaches. They hunt for information and update their skills at every opportunity.

The support they give to each other spurs them to obtain even superior quality and they utilise every resource available. It is unbelievable the extent to which they can go to seek advice and information. They pay through their nose to attend local and foreign courses and the best part is that they share whatever they get. They sell houses and property if necessary.

By contrast, getting a full house to a free seminar in most parts of South Africa is a huge luxury. Coaches feel they are doing someone a favour by attending. Some feel they know the game, and that exact mentality prove how much they do not. Imagine how hard it would be to have people pay for their coaching education, but proper coach education is expensive.

The cause for this occurrence is simple. Few ‘accidental’ successes made people believe that they are good, and therefore, they became comfortable. They may have been, but the game evolved and they remained in one stubborn spot. Forming solid coaches’ structures may assist, if they can germinate to start with. Coaches need to meet weekly in known informal settings. This is good for the public image and the aspiring coaches get to meet the best mentors in their society.

That platform, above all, affords concrete and relevant discussion about football development, exchange of ideas as well as referrals and recommendation of players. Interaction by coaches from different levels of the game evens out the inequality of the perceived huge gaps between different leagues.

Understanding African youth players development

Playing heavy and aerodynamically poor footballs in bumpy and hard surfaces and inclined sloppy fields as well confined spaces that restrict far and wide vision, enables South African players to manipulate the ball the way they do. This is good but it is bad. It requires deliberate promotion of better playing surfaces and equipment to reduce the worry of the behaviour of the ball under such conditions.

Some issues that concern young players when playing football, is that in trying to complete a pass, they find that their target has shifted. Logic would have it then that the ball is played into space, but it is incomprehensible to the youngster that he/she should play into nothingness. Reason must be given why that is a good idea, but the player still has to decipher the best ‘nothingness’ to play the ball into.

This brings in the tactical understanding of football, the decision-making. Of all the spaces available, which one is the most productive and why. Often, the other players must tune to the same frequency in understanding that they have a role to play upon the departure of the ball from the feet of the teammate in possession; that they must provide options that may or may not be used.

To incorporate further complication to the complex picture, consideration of possible outcomes if the ball is suddenly lost eludes even the respected professionals. For young players, it is enough to pass anyhow and then chase the ball after it has been lost. They have the energy and they care less about structures and responsibilities. They just run and have fun.

With the issue of balls and surfaces, the situation shifts slowly to where more youth players have a proper ball and improved playing surfaces. The hard bouncy ground is still challenge to many children. There is very little one can do with that, however upgrading one's skills and seeking knowledge should be non-negotiable. Investing in oneself should be the pride of coaches, but how many bother.   

New wave of South African football

Few weeks ago, we wrote commending the Safa appointment of Shakes Mashaba as national team coach among other things. In that post, we commended the freshness of the minds and ideas coming from the Safa House, that people who are a little more serious about their jobs occupy the offices. We still maintain the fact that they are a ‘little’ more serious until further notice.

The barometer has been the results of the women junior and senior teams performing exceptional well, and then the men’s junior teams and senior teams elevating their performances. Of course, this article is triggered by the latest qualification by Amajimbos to the African championship after eliminating Egypt following that 2-2 draw in Cairo.

My hometown, by design or by default, carries a bad image that one morning I defend tooth and nail, and the next I concede. The ‘small town mentality’ has much more to do with accepting mediocrity than being in a small town. Safa House never accepted the status quo and believed in change of doing business. The national body’s character had taken a battering from the media and public. Scepticism of the global changes made by Danny Jordaan never deterred the national agenda to South Africanise football.

There are many items of great impact that I am not qualified to comment on, which prove that soon the country will take its rightful place in the football world. Having travelled the length and breadth of this very small planet, I sometimes felt ashamed to reveal where I come from. Just as I sometimes feel embarrassed to confess about my town origins, (and usually when driving in other provinces, one feels he can be forgiven for bad behaviour, after-all the number plates show), the landscape has considerably transformed our football image with the qualification of Amajita and Amajimbos to the African Youth Championships.   

Though my town is not a small town anymore, the mentalities do not show yet. Historical reasons have been given for the lack of desire to perform, or the increased secretive attitude and ‘pull him down’ syndrome. I think South Africans in generals are not yet mature to accept their small doses of success have been fluke. Many of the development programs have been events without follow up strategies. All people, South Africans or not, have allergic tendencies to new ways of thinking.

At this point, with the little success on the horizon, resting on our laurels is detrimental. A few years back, my young children were doing homework and one asked, ‘What are laurels?’ The other’s response underlined what society had come to accept as fact; ‘Something to rest on’. After embracing change, taking part in the processes and systems that brought about that change or participating in the programs that perpetuate that change seem to elude the best of us.

Many of the football problems still clung onto by the rich and elite South African football clubs, is the Europeanisation of the African game. That is subject for another day, but generally, this has only managed to give access to the Europeans to study and castrate our game. How, you may ask. We are made to play the way they can, in a way they can manage and handle. That is why Africa has not won the Fifa World Cup yet. Playing football to our strengths gives new problems for the world to solve.

I am not sure how Dr Jordaan came to the point of diagnosing the problem and then prescribe the antidote. In any case, if the effect of the treatment can be felt now, how so over a protracted length of time. One still has to see if the playing pattern of all the teams that have qualified for their respective championships follow a certain trend. That fruitful trend should determine a national playing philosophy of all national teams.

Coming back to my town, just organising people to come together is an uphill task. Yet there is dissatisfaction in terms of the benefits of football by those who think they have toiled and hassled hard enough. Few coaches tried to convince me they had development structures which produced national stars. Through interrogation, I discovered they found talented players who stayed in their teams until they moved to the Absa Premier League. It sounded arrogant pointing out why those players cannot pass or receive the ball today despite playing in the top league.

Further investigation revealed that the coaches were not aware of the Solidarity Mechanism or the Development Compensation (another subject for another day), because I questioned the state of their development teams that should have benefitted from the transfer of players. Many more will claim that national team players passed through their hands, yet there is nothing to show for it.

The nation has to hastily work on a pattern of play and all coaches must embrace, top to bottom. Players participating at all levels of the game must have worked on the single purpose in both attaching and defending duties. Unless there is unity of purpose in this regard, the gains and ground covered in these few examples of early success can be reversed. Few, to the detriment of the game, cannot promote the reluctance to change and their inability to tolerate and embrace change must never be fanned.

As the nation waits the much talked about Technical Director, (my guess is that too much thought is being put on the individual who will drive the agenda of playing football the way we enjoy to play) we have a duty to play football of value. Value in this regard, represents what an ordinary South African purports to be football. That is the only way to success. Our greatest clubs today are not convincing in their play and their play should be brought into line with the national agenda. Their development sides should be made to conform.

How feasible that project can be, will depend on the muscle of the mother body, so often forced to play second fiddle to their own child, the National Premier League. At least, with the record straight regarding the Multichoice Diski Challenge, normalcy reigned and will hopefully continue to.

For now, I keep wondering from which pot Shakes Mashaba, Molefi Ntseki and the other national team coaches drink. That is a new wave of South African football.

 

SASFA Tourney proves major deficiencies in quest for development

The SASFA Nkangala Region tournament went on successfully on Saturday, with many issues proving lack of proper coaching. The development nature of the tournament needed urgent attention. The Under 13 and 17 boys and girls competed. The Under 15 competed in other tournaments previously and those capable of making the grade in the Under 17 made the team.

There were lots of goals, mostly due to the nature of the forward kick and rush coupled with equally bad goalkeeping. The fact that the attacks were successfully finalised gave meaning to the special day.

Credit must go to the organisers for the job well done. Besides the obvious young and amateurish but technically mature of play, no coaches I managed to talk to, ever attended courses or coaching clinics. They had played football at college under unqualified coaches.

They coached football on bad pitches that are hard and dry. Few players had boots and the balls not adequate. Some felt they needed more time to coach the youth. Others were eager to attend coaching courses and coaching clinics to cater for the lack of capacity and skills to coach.

Local Football Association referees were in charge of the matches but they worked without Assistant referees. These referees need to upgrade themselves with the latest information regarding the amendments in the Laws of the Game.

This made the LFA referees get more experience, although most are retired referees after all. If assistant referees employed to offer their expertise, young players experience professional playing at an early stage.

With over 20 EMS personnel in attendance, it proved the need for special Sports Medicine training. Both the Mpumalanga EMS equipped with many medical kits and stretchers should be commended for their presence, with more than two ambulances on stand-by.

The schools and organisers needed to avail rehydration fluids. Water and juices could have been adequately supplied together with oranges as a cheap source of energy.

There is much one could say about player vetting, delegation of duties and handling of disputes. Prior to the commencement, each of these and others needed designation to individuals to deal with and then the President oversees whole process. These and issues regarding competition rules proved to possess detrimental loopholes.

Many having alluded to one-day tournaments being anti-development by their nature, a report to the organisers with recommendation may improve the aspect of disqualification of offenders as that denied schoolchildren to participate in their own tournament. As such, it is against the rights of the children to deny them the opportunity, usually the reasons unknown to them.

Other tools to correct the wrongs can be utilised, but the youths’ experience to participate is never recovered once lost. Most disputes emanate from the desire to win, an enemy of development. Coaches cheat by using over-age players and players who are not scholars. Well-trained people desist from such practises and work on player development which prioritises participation at all cost.  

The national team coach and the yet to be appointed Technical Director together with the South Africa Football Coaches Association need to set out a national football playing philosophy of the country.

Coaching courses, clinics and workshops must be urgently organised to capacitate school coaches with the skills to coach the school teams in order to have highly qualified coaches at the bottom as a development tool for regional, provincial and national teams.

A database for the available coaches must be compiled in order to ascertain the level of the coaching qualification and upgrade the standard of coaching in schools.

The affiliation to the South Africa Football Coaches Association by school coaches benefit the development in many ways, including utilising the available programs and resources for youth training among others.

Ted Dumitru’s address at SAFCA symposium on High Performance for International Excellence

In one of the most exciting and relevant presentations I have ever heard, the former Mamelodi Sundowns and Kaizer Chief coach straight away pointed out wrong and outdated training methods employed by coaches, explaining that all training methods produce results.

The question was the type of training offered and the fruits produced. The good football training preparation created positive effects that have the ability to alter the results. The culture of such effects was such that success realised was never transferable, meaning that what worked elsewhere is not necessarily going to be a hit at another place at another time.

Some methods of training are known to be detrimental. The higher the level of play, the higher the complexity and methodologies. More important to note, was the fact that high performance training for international excellence involved training the brain.

The football brain rules performance. Coaches needed to work on the brain as there is little benefit to do physical, technical and tactical work if brainpower is ignored. Knowledge of the game will teach one that the quantity aspect of training is not best.

Dwelling on the need to run more, kick more and work more steals from the quality aspect of training. As much as we may not have much football brain at our disposal, the work ethic of the modern game dictates that we stimulate the mind by increased variation, increase the defensive and offensive elements, allowing increased creativity and improvisation and most importantly, the variation of pace.

Ted emphasised that players can play as far as they could think. All his address reminded me of the article I wrote after I watched Zimbabwean football (http://www.tsendex.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-zimbabwe-football-is-horrible.html). In the modern game, active distance between players is significantly reduced, ranging between 8 and 10 metres vertically and horizontally. That aspect demands quick quality decision-making. Players are exerted to increased pressures due to reduced space and time. The speed thought remained more relevant as the complexity of the game went obviously high.

Players performed tasks concurrently, in quick succession and even simultaneously. These include but are not limited to decision-making, emotional balance, assessment of the football situation and commitment to support amongst others. This is the dynamic situation of the game, hence the need for dynamic training.

The highest complexity of the game is scoring goals. There are 27 factors and variables surrounding that function. Coaches therefore need to maximise the training content. One way to do that is the packaging all the aspects of football (physical, technical, tactical and mental) into one.

The decision must be made whether the coach wants to train the team or train the players. The question of whether players are performing to the best of their ability should be addressed as much as the players’ ability to manage their weaknesses. Coaches are responsible to fix this.  

The football brain motivation creates a mental environment to absorb training content. This can be achieved if everything in training is done with the ball or in relation to the ball, directly or indirectly. By taking static training out of the picture, full-scale football intensity should be utilised.  

Coaches should think of options and variations to allow for creativity, initiative and leadership. There must be consideration of the expenditure and recovery of energy on a regular basis as the rate of effort and recovery must be systematic.

In one very interesting point, Ted tore one everyday piece of equipment used nowadays; the flat cones and agility ladder. Such equipment forced players to keep their heads down. Players have to look at the opponents and even beyond them. Hurdles and cheap mannequins are the best at all times. These improve the 3-Dimensional vision perspective of the game and bring reality to the training session.

Amongst the many more issues brought up, the psychometric assessment of the football brain remained a priority. Players could be given scenarios to solve their problems. That exercise will  provide coaches with a clear idea of the personalities in the team.

Over a 160 coaches gave a round of applause for the eye-opening presentation session of the legend.

Professor Neto Esphezim attacks South African coaches at the SAFCA symposium

I could not believe my eyes when I saw Professor Neto Esphezim, my mentor at the Brazilian Football Academy in Rio de Janeiro in 1999. Together with Carlos Alberto Perreira and Julio Cesar Leal, they formed a formidable team of instructors for the Advanced Diploma on Brazilian Football for Foreign Coaches and Trainers.

Professor Neto humbly introduced himself as an expert of the game with over 60 years of experience working all over the world with associations and Fifa. He has been an instructor of the Fifa since 1978 while sitting in their technical committee.

The Prof allowed for the excited coaches to laugh at the 7-1 before he began a frank address. In a symposium attended by the country’s top coaches from the ABSA Premier League clubs, former Bafana Bafana coaches and junior coaches and legends of the South African game, he began with the state of the Brazilian coaching arrangement.

In their 21 states, with each having an association for the coaches, he explained how their 100 000 registered members obtained police clearances to weed off paedophiles. All coaches worked full-time and earned a minimum of $1,500.00 per month.

He went a level higher to ask how many coaches were in the room. As excited as we were, we raised our hands. He asked who had read a football that day, then that week, month and year. None raised their hands. He barked that loudly with a disappointed voice, how the room was full of imposters.

This was in reference to the Amazulu versus Moroka Swallows match that appalled him.   The biggest problem with that game was the great athleticism and hard running from the very beginning. ‘If you score a goal in the first minute, how do you spend the next 89 running like headless chickens clocking the ball forward like that? When do you breathe and when do you think? Incredible!!’  

Prof Neto authored many books and he informed the audience how he read over 960 football-coaching books in his coaching life. Coaches needed to update their knowledge with changing trends of the game and training methods. ‘You are all nothing.’

He wondered if we could plan and conduct a proper professional training session and even read and analyse the game. H expressed his disgust at what he saw on television. He watched 6 matches during the past week which were fair. He saw something else he never had a clue what it was. He had to ask someone what it was and the answer was that it was ‘soccer’.

That answer proved that he could have never known since he was a football man, and not a soccer man. Already he was addressing the people who coached soccer and not football. The challenge for all to up their game and work professionally was emphasised as the most important aspect for all.

He made this point stronger with an example of single mothers who struggle to make ends meet in poor Brazil. The women prefer lunch boxes for the boys, take them by hand to school, go back to school later to pick them up and head to the football training grounds.

These children feel the need to come daily from training due to their love for the ball. Parents invest money and emotions as these children mean everything to these mothers. However, more often than not, the children drop out of school before even reaching high school to pursue football. What justice is there that these football-loving children end up with coaches who coach them wrongly?

Who would love to bear the conscious of knowing that they have been robbing the children’s future with bad technical and tactical training from inception? The obvious truth is that the human spirit dictates that no effort is spared to equip youngsters with the best ever coaching possible and by the best possible coaches dedicated to the game.

He briefly went through the 2014 Brazil Fifa World Cup Technical Report. African teams played 5 % higher than normal except for Ivory Coast who were below par. Costa Rica and Columbia were 10 % better than normal. The world top nations from Europe and South America played below par.

The African problem remained that of poor mentality and inability to handle pressure. They failed to handle the excitement to qualify to a higher level and collapsed when they needed to be firm. That lack of competence to deal with the pressure of success destroyed the inroads made in technical and tactical improvements.

Chile and The Netherlands were the most productive teams while Algeria and Germany fixture was viewed as the most interesting match of the tournament tactically.    

‘In Brazil, we don’t like football. We are in love with the ball’. He concluded to a huge round of applause.

VIOLENCE...the bits and pieces each of us can do..

The Bosso-Dembare match has come and gone. Of all the after effects of this epic clash, violence once again showed its ugly head and a few kilometres away from BF, a life in the name of Thembinkosi Hloli was lost. My take on violence is that it must not be looked at in isolation just as a Highlanders and Dynamos problem.

 

A holistic approach to it is needed. I have witnessed violence not only at BF, but also at Mucheke, Rimuka, Tsholotsho and at Fairbridge. What needs to be addressed is not the result of it or the source, rather we should look at what causes violence in football stadia.

 

For a start I believe the fines the clubs are paying for violent misconduct of supporters will not in any way deter hooligans from throwing missiles in future, simply because the hooligans are not directly affected. The $2000 fine will come from the clubs and not the guys who threw empty bottles, who 99% of the times, came in free of charge, thanks to the corruption at the turnstiles.

Here proposed are a few measures for the Castle Lager PSL to adopt:
1. The PSL must move in with speed and introduce a seasonal ticketing system that does not only guarantee you entry but also a specific seat in the stadium. Once you are caught throwing missiles, your ticket must be cancelled and your seat as well.

The other benefit here is that a random seating system will demystify the issue of supporters seating according to camps. I have seen Kaiser Chiefs supporters seated next to Orlando Pirates fans. Also an identified hooligan must face the law and be banned from football.

2. PSL and referees must act seriously on players who incite violence through (a) provokative goal celebration. (b) feigning of injuries. (c)) mobbing of match officials by technical team etc. This is how Europe and England particularly have tammed hooliganism. Provocation and insinuation are biggest sources of violence.

3. Monitoring of perfomance of match officials by the relevant committee.

4. Club Marshals must be well equipped through radio communication to aid the police to flush out and identify any possible troublemakers.

5. A proffesional police force that does not pride itself in teargas, but in good crowd control measures. Police should also not be supporters, at least for 90 minutes, not only face the crowd, but be within the crowds as well.

Historically, the use of teargas and antiriot dogs invokes bad memories in any society and as police can be sure to meet some missiles thrown back at them in frustration.

6. The stadia should be evacuation-friendly for players and fans. This will lessen the tendency to use teargas to disperse people as not everyone is a hooligan and as such must be protected.

7. TOLERANCE...worst case scenario, I should be my brother's keeper and ensure he is not a hooligan.

8. Supporter education by both clubs and PSL is necessary. Football is only a sport with 3 possible outcomes and such messages have to hit the fans through sms platforms, Tv and newspaper adverts. Police, team leaders, captains and supporters must be used in this drive.

9. Clubs must embrace supporters associations. One benefit of such groups is that they tend to do things as a group. This includes sitting in one bay together as a chapter. It becomes easy therefore for supporters to control and identify bad apples amongst themselves e.t.c. I belong to a Highlanders Facebook group that does not tolerate nonsense among its members. Errant members are either blocked or reprimanded.

These are but a few measures to help curb this ugly monster called violence in football. (By Victor November.)

The late Thembinator Hloli has since been laid to rest, with Bosso supporters through the said Facebook group assisting with cash, kind, a Vuvuzela for our deceased brother and a BIG Bosso flag with a farewell message specifically dedicated to him.The flag covered his coffin from his Sizinda home to his final resting place in Lower Gwelo.

The whole Highlanders FC team led by Ndumiso Gumede , Kelvin Kaindu, Mike Mathe and captain Innocent Mapuranga had descended upon Hloli family home to pay their last respects to my beloved fan. Gumede preached the gospel of oneness and peace.

Is this not supposed to be the beautiful game? Hoping to hear your opinions about what the world should do to curb football violence.

Dr Danny Jordaan addresses The SAFCA symposium

The Safa President, Dr Danny Jordaan, gate-crashed the SAFCA session and went for the jugular. What makes the man irresistible is his knowledge and use of data and statistics. Straight away, he reminded the coaches how the first competitive games of the new seasons were decided on penalties after 0-0 draws.

The Under-21 championship in Mafikeng, the Orlando Pirates-Kaizer Chiefs Carling Black Label match, the ABC Motsepe play-offs, in Durban, some of the MTN quarter-finals and many others including the Under 17 and 20 trips to North and West Africa proved the lads fired blanks.

Putting it into perspective, he mentioned Xavi’s pass rate of 98 % compared to South Africa’s best at 40 %, mentioning that opponents needed not to fight for the ball as it always came back to them without a fight. Likewise, he pointed out that Wayne Rooney scored 4 goals with every 6 attempts while local coaches informed him their best strikers only scored on their 18^th attempt in South Africa.

The frank talking boss pointed out that Germany concluded their 2004 European championship in the first round and then lifted the Fifa World Cup in 2014. That planning proved that the development element of coaches and players to bounce back from disaster had no substitute. 

This point was made in reference to the mandate of the new Bafana Bafana coach, Ephraim Shakes Mashaba, whose job priority is qualification to the 2018 Russia Fifa World Cup and the qualification to compete to win the 2022 Qatar Fifa World Cup.

The country aimed at a regular top 3 position in Africa and top 10 (to 20) in the world Fifa ranking. Coaches were discouraged from shortcuts but encouraged to work for the good of the game of South Africa.

Given the 51 million South Africans, 3 million registered football players fell short of the expected 10 % of the population. Coaches needed to put more effort to produce more players of very high quality. He bemoaned apartheid traits in schools that still saw football as a black man sport while promoting rugby and cricket, pointing out that Herschele Gibbs went into high school as a national Under 17 footballer and came out a cricketer, as did Molefe Oliphant’s son who became a rugby player.

Jordaan outlined the many achievement concluded in the short term so far and his plans in the long term, including building nine provincial academies and artificial turfs, starting in KwaZulu Natal within weeks. A national women league will commence in the coming seasons, among the prominent plans. His National Executive Committee will be reduced from 36 to 18 soon.

He mention the deals with Siyaya and SABC will net Safa R200 million, almost in line with cricket (R250 million) and rugby (R350 million), up from R50 million. He reminded all that the game used to benefit R100 000.00 only while R40 million was enjoyed by other sports with less viewership.

He mummed an idea that some countries funded private academies following a national agenda and philosophy. ‘Don’t talk about us, talk to us’, he concluded.

The South African Football Coaches Association symposium

The South African Football Coaches Association symposium sought to address issues of unity and working together of coaching and work out a national football philosophy and the implementation of development programs. Networking and interaction encouraged improvement and development of quality coaching. South Africa saw the rise, fall and demise of the potential global giant and therefore, coaches searched their football soul henceforth.

The encouraging way forward included discouragement of short tournaments that are events of anti-development compared for with longer competitive league arrangements. The league without worry of promotion and relegation laced with incentives and motivation to participate and compete are adequate tools to develop the game from grassroots.

The vision would border along the lines of an effective, inclusive, cohesive and ethical organisation. Coaches needed to understand that the development specialisation of training to learn, training to train, training to compete and training to win remained a priority in their quest for excellence in engaging stakeholders in the beautiful game.

Youth training should reflect that the game was both art and science providing the satisfaction, success and reward. Brain training rather than physical development needed prioritisation for mental activation and stimulation while taking into account the emotions and feeling of the players. In all stages of training, creativity, expression and improvisation are encouraged.

The fluidity of mobile and dynamic training from an early age until maturity are unnegotiable. Simplicity of sessions and programs allow better and efficient technique development from simple to complex situation. However, coaches appreciate how complicated it is to play simple.

Like learner drivers under the supervision of a drivers’ instructor, all aspects of the game are trained upon simultaneously, concurrently or in quick succession.  This was the summary of Simon Ngomane, the head of Technical Commitee and Sipho Dlangalala of youth development.

Amazing unity following the death of Thembelenkosini Hloli (MHSRIP)

Extreme levels of violence following the Highlanders versus Dynamos match in Bulawayo's Barbourfields Stadium claimed a young live of a fan, Thembelenkosini Hlobi. May his soul rest in eternal peace. Here is a Meluleki Moyo's narration of events after other concerned Bosso fans heard the news and decided to intervene. The article includes Facebook comments up to the time of this release.

As proposed and agreed in this group,today I visited the family of the late Thembelenkosini Hloli in Sizinda. Mqondisi Malunga accompanied me.We presented ourselves as representatives of a Facebook Page group of Bosso fans based locally and internationally.In our presentation we made specific mention of Isaac Mbedzi as being the group leader.

We told them that Mbedzi is the one who sent Bosso those Canadians who were around early in the year. We told Hloli and those on our round 'table' that we are staunch Bosso fans who travel as far as Harare,Hwange and Triangle.We told him we and the rest of the Bosso fraternity was sharing the grief of the loss of their son.

We told them that tho we were not blood relatives and tho we did not know Thembelenkosini in person,as soon as somebody puts on that black and white uniform he becomes our spiritual brother. Bab'uHloli is one of those stately looking soft spoken African men probably aged close to 70. He told us his opinions on the death of his son.

His version differed slightly from those on the FB pages. He told us that there were messages from his son's fone sent after his son's death.I won't go into that because I consider that to be part of police evidence. Meanwhile,the otherwise strong looking old man seemed rather perplexed by his son's death.

The least I can say was that somebody in the discussion mentioned that Thembelenkosini was repeatedly shown on the TV screens wearing his Bosso overalls when Bosso played Dembare at the NSS in Harare, two months back. I could tell that the old man at this stage is prepared to consider a conspiracy theory to the effect that his son's death was pre-planned.

Don't get me wrong, I'm just stating the state of perplexion that the old man is going through. Meanwhile we advised him that we want to assist in anyway possible now and possibly in the coming days. We asked for a family Ecocash account and we were given that of her daughter Hlengiwe. Hloli has other sons.The youngest is Alphonce. He spent time with us.His elder son is named Phineas but joined us late because he was busy with funeral arrangements.

Mqo and I only had two packs of Cremora (the Bosso milk).When we discovered that Alphonce had no airtime, we fowarded $5 to him because according to him, it is wrong for the young man not to have airtime-at such a time as this.This we did in front of everyone there so that if they have to make urgent calls they know who to go to.

Meanwhile, there was a reasonable number of pple at the funeral wake and one thing that we picked was that Phineas was busy searching for a vehicle to transport mourners to the funeral. Hloli wants his son's body to travel tomorrow after the post mortem but some nurses suggested that it may be difficult because coming from a holiday as we are, there shall be too many bodies undergoing post mortems tomorrow.

The body may therefore travel on Thursday. I promised the Hloli family that I'll get them a Bosso flag tomorrow to accompany their son to his resting place. Naturally, umdala uHloli expressed his gratefulness. Meanwhile, the news of Thembelenkosini's passing on was broken to the nation by a friend of his by the name of Wellington Samadalinja.

We visited him and invited him to be one of the representatives of the Hloli family together with Alphonce here in our FB Bosso Supporters' page. Samadalinja has since become an FB friend of both Mqondisi and I. I'll recommend him to be added as a member of this page.Thembelenkosini Hloli's death perplexed his family such that some of the questions they are asking about their son are contrary to what we've read on FB.

The young man who died for the 'sins' of Highlanders and its fans will be laid to rest in Chief Sogwala's area of Lower Gwelo. Their homestead is 60 kimometres from the city of Gweru. May Thembinator's soul rest in eternal peace!

Miges Miguel akalale ngokuThula. sibonga kakhulu uMusa lokusifikel khona. Akuhlale kunjalo


Tshepo Mabalane Mabalane Yaze yabuhlungu lendaba. Makalale ngoxolo umfowethu lemuli yakwaHloli ithi ukududuzeka. Alwehlanga lungehlanga. Siyabonga Moyo loMalunga ngomsebenzi omkhulu elithe lawenza. Ukwanda kwaliwa ngabathakathi.


Moeketsi Ncube thanx bhudi ukusimela ekukhaleni kanye labanye ngesikhathi esinzima esisehleyo.R.I.P young Hloli


Ndo Dk amen inkosi ibenaye isivikele nathi


Victor November Thanx for the visit to the Hlolis on our behalf.Give us the ecocash number and we see what to do henceforth.Siyabonga madoda


Michael Mdladla Ndiweni Siyabonga bafowethu.


Mkhumbulo Uzokdubula Sbhamusenyon Alwehlanga lungehlanga, abaduduzeke abakoHloli bethembele kuMdali , !


Mlamuli Mhlaba Nkomo RIP

Busani M J Malinga Siyabonga bhudi, kalale ngoxolo umfowethu


Sehlie Majamela Ngeleza kwaze kwakubuhlungu shuwa kalale ngokuthula umfowethu kunzima kakhulu


Mbongeni Hlathi Mlilo sibonga guyz for the great work...may he RIP.


Nodumo Nyathi Meluleki Moyo please post the ecocash number kusetshenzwe madoda..kalale ngoxolo umfowethu..siyabonga Mqondisi Malunga Meluleki Moyo ngokuyasimela ....Lathi singabantu..ngokuzwa kwami indaba ebekwe nguMeluleki its clear usizo luyafuneka bafethu....


Meluleki Moyo Will give u Hlengiwe's ecocash number when Wellington Samadalinja has been added to this group.Meanwhile,I call on group administrators to remove inflammatory posts about Thembelihle.Let's hope everything will be ready tomorrow.


Nqo Mguza Good job guys!! Good job indeed. This is exactly what we need in this group, less talk and more action.


Willard Khanye Thanx meluleki


Busani Tshuma Maqumbaqaleke Lala ngoxolo mfowethu


Isaac Mbedzi Ibuhlungu kakhulu indaba leyi njalo ngiyalihlonipha Moyo lo Malunga ngokuyimela indaba leyi and even lokuza in public and confirm umsebenzi wonke lamabizo abantu asebenzileyo.Liyenze elikubona kumele kwenziwe njalo lathi kumele siphathise ngendlela yakhona ,mina ngeke ngithi ngiyikokheli ye group kodwa ngizazama ngezenzo ukuthi sizame ukuncedisa here and there lokufika kubo ngingafika.Tse Ndex labo Nqaba Donga are the rightful leaders of the group.Kodwa lo umsebenzi oqondane lemfa leyi ngizawusebenza .Let his soul rest in eternal peace.




Wonder Chikanya Thank you gentlemen. Yisibonelo esihle leso iNkosi mayilibusise.


Mehluli Tshuks Ngwiza Rest in peace my home boy.


Isaac Mbedzi Abakwanisayo okwakhathesi asincedeni madoda .


Nodumo Nyathi Meluleki Moyo. Mqondisi Malunga. fakani inumber boooooo


BraNqo Ndlovu Thank you so much Melu, tears are flowing freely down my face as I type this. God bless you for the commitment, for taking your time, we are grateful, as a collective. Let those of us here at home flood that number eachj $10, $20, whatever we can spare and cannot, will certainly go a long way, from what you have so eloquently portrayed, in terms of the needs of the family. Lina elioutside, I think as I suggested and there wa sno objection, can uBhudi Nodumo maybe provide or arrange a way, or the family might have someone they would rather use in SA etc, angazi Meluleki Moyo, Tse Ndex, Nqaba Donga, Isaac Mbedzii, Mqondisi Malunga and all of you guys, what do you say regarding donations and contributions from outside zim?


Vusumuzi Sibanda Its never a good thing that a parent buries his or her child. As a parent I would prefer that my son bury me. May his soul rest in peace bakithi.


Nodumo Nyathi Mina my account in SA available and wil send the cash at my cost. Meluleki Moyo pliz chat with Wellington and ask if they have someone in SA who can give us their account number and we deposit.if not Admins accepting i can avail my account number and cash b sent say latest Thursday morning


Abell Moyo thnks bafethu job well done ayisoze ibulawe


Tse Ndex May His Soul Rest in Eternal Peace


Noel Munzabwa guys we should emerge stronger and united thanks to those who paid our tributes to the family


BraNqo Ndlovu Thina esisekhaya we are then going to be sorted in terms of ecocash and so forth, guys we cannot begin to be enough help for the family. Can we feel some movement too, some action, from those in SA and maybe the UK and Canada etc? Let us show true unity of purpose and show the enemy, yes, I mean it like that, the enemy, however wena individually you take it, that we can stand as one. we can stand together, singazihlekisi ngabo.


Isaac Mbedzi Nodumo Nyathi yenza njalo atleast kube le something.


Ben Ndlovu This is sad. Siyabonga baba Moyo


Meluleki Moyo The gud news is that,it's now official,the entire Bosso team visited the Hloli family.They were at the Hloli home just after 6pm today.Infact a Bosso official-the Hlolis say CEO Gumede visited them earlier in the day.Their Sizinda address is 67039/2.It's close to the bar.I can now give u sis Hlengiwe Hloli's ecocash number.I'm asking every Bosso supporter who wants to use this number to talk to the Bosso officer so that it isofficialised. Hlengi's number is 0773 080 879


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  BraNqo Ndlovu As part of canvassing for donations to my 3000-plus friends, even if i get something from 10 only, may I please be allowed to copy and paste the post by Meluleki above? and Account details etc? Some people who have means and support not just Highlanders but football may feel like contributing, am hoping nje?
  
  
  Brighton Mandla Mpofu so sad
  19 mins · Like
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  Nodumo Nyathi Meluleki Moyo please post separate th number as a post.am sure asonkinga leyi no need to go to Bosso official. Hlengiwe uzabhala phansi amounts recieved asazise and then total gets posted kugroup ukuze sibongane kahle.kunjalo vele kuba lebhuku okubhalwa khona.yena uza recorder and update you and Mqondisi Malunga
  
  

Highlanders loses 0-1 to Dynamos and drops from the top

An over-psyched Highlanders FC faced a very nervous Dynamos in a Castle Lager Premier League match at Barbourfields Stadium, hoping to rectify a crooked record dating to 2006 against the arch-rivals. An immense amount of pressure in the first half counted for naught as Bosso fell to a sucker-punch just after a second half restart.

With less than 30 seconds played, Charles Sibanda set up Njabulo Ncube who took weak shot from close range. That chance came from left wing after fine run by the league’s best striker, who delivered a perfect cross for Ncube to squander. The match proved to be a good passing game by both sides, Highlanders taking the initiative to create and fluff golden chances due to pressure to perform against their nemesis.

The Bosso wingbacks exposed themselves to Dembare attacks as they flooded forward, but the coach rectified the situation by pushing midfielders wide and kept the defenders put. Generally, both teams’ first touches lacked quality and exposed the players to possible injuries and bad decision-making. The many long balls proved fatal as strikers wrestled with defenders to control the balls.

Picking up of the second ball was dominated by Mantengwane. Sibanda played an extremely mobile type of football, spurning glorious chances to bury the opposition. Calisto Pasuwa replaced Mbimba who failed to catch up with the pace and the rhythm of the game by Murape Murape. That move was the game changer and the tonic of the game that the visitors wanted.

Mapuranga was fried by his man on the left wing, let a cross come through into the box. Kangwa controlled the ball for Mutumwa to stab the ball from under the crossbar. That goal was enough to compound a miserable period in which Highlanders collected two out of twelve points.

Despite previous dropped points, Highlanders kept the top spot, but the defeat at home lowered them to third and it can be worse in the next few days. Despite an avalanche of clear-cut chances and a lion’s share of possession, Kelvin Kaindu’s boys flattered to deceive and came off with nothing.

The Zambian coach came under excessive pressure as fans began to blame him, his tactics and substitutions. The missed chances were squarely placed on his shoulders as the general of the team. Among the various schools of thought, the team’s predictability of the same style of play and formation le to an approach every team expected from Bosso.

A direct blame of inability to read the game and useless subbing times and material led the Bulawayo giant faithfuls to take stock of how they could turn a record of nine losses and seven draw in the two clubs’ last 16 matches.

There is even polite advise for Kelvin Kaindu, that this was due time to pack the bags as he had tried his best which was seen as not enough. One fan praised his professionalism, believing that the gaffer sees the need to hand the button to a man with new tactics and ideas.

Kaindu received criticism of removing an ‘attacking box to box player in Manhanga’ with a defensive midfielder in Ndiweni when the team needed offensive power. The criticism extended to the reliance of the misfiring Njabulo Ncube, a tool whose antidote was a three men central defence.

The bitter pill to swallow, despite the loss of the points, the drop from the log summit and losing a match to direct rivals, is that the loss was to Dynamos. Winning the championship starts with victory over fellow contenders.

The biggest argument came when many defended him for assembling a good team that failed to convert easy chances and conceded the softest goal. Many think he should be coaching boys basic technique at senior level as others thought Sibanda and Njabulo should know what to do by now.

The truth, all emotion aside, is that technique training starts at the age of 6 and ontinues throughout the career of the professional. At this stage of the league, it should be forming a great part of the sessions. However, even the best have a bad day. If that day came against Dynamos, who is there to take the blame but the coach.

Kaindu has few men at his corner. Those baying for his blood do not know what they are talking about. The bearers of that thought based it on the unfortunate players who failed to convert chances that Kaindu drilled them through in training. The perpetrators were the players and KK the victim. The players let the coach down.

The tense and desperate situation created by the loss brought to the fore the fact that the buck stopped with the coach as no coach ever saved his job by arguing that players are missed chances. Despite the good effort in today’s match, the players’ lacked the die-hard spirit resulting in faulting and lapse in concentration.

Taking a punch in the chin and accepting defeat because the players failed to take chances never went well with many who looked at this one opportunity that looked promising until that fateful kick that punished an otherwise better team in terms of possession.

The day’s victors leapfrogged Bosso together with league debutants, ZPC Kariba FC, as Highlanders’ goal drought steadily swells to four matches. The superstitious began to blame the ground against Dynamos as it became the Harare’s fruitful ground, while others think that Saturday never favoured the black and white outfit side. There could be truth that an opportunity to take Dynamos to Luveve where they have always lost could have brought different results.

The saddest part of that game, was that it had become a fixture charged with emotion and the stakes became higher given the connotations of the results. At whatever level and for whatever reason, a match against Dynamos is bigger than the rewards. Any coach entrusted with the club has a fans mandate to beat Dynamos.

That failure to do so suddenly makes Kaindu a bad coach. The available players performed below par in crucial areas and at vital moments, as any play can have a bad day, and in this case, a single moment.

The desperate nature of the desired result makes the next fixture against the champions even harder for Kaindu or his successor. The players will try harder and fare dismally. To add salt to injury, the fans will be frustrated and throw missiles in the ground and cause fines that will milk the club dry.

That alone will incapacitate the club to get better players and increased performances to dismantle the Dynamos machine. If fans and supporters can throw missiles in the field of play, surely, players are entitled to miss those chances. If that barbarism is cool, what crime is there in not scoring a goal?

Witbank killing football to death

Well-intentioned as corruption and bribery can be, the stupid initiators and ignorant participants share a criminal mind to defeat the ends of justice to promote short term selfish systems that cannot perpetuate naturally. In the game of football, the majority of stakeholders are in it for money. That is good.

The reason why that becomes elusive, is the clandestine and unscrupulous evasion the norms. Team bosses and club administrators connive to undo those who live by the book. They pay their way up. The good part here is that there is money for nothing in respect to the bribed and the briber does not lose much as they are usually wealthy. The bad side is the impact on the community and the players.

After exchanging hands, like all money, that cash runs a few homes running, paying school fees, buying food and affords club and league administrators some vices of this world. The under-par clubs rise to the next league at the expense of the best.

The best players in the league curse the day they were born, and rue the very talent they have. National team performances deteriorate and the national association engage witch doctors while they breed and harbour the problems.

The undeserving teams face relegation as they got promoted through the back door. The bribery and corruption acts recycle themselves at the expense of the community who rely on good football for entertainment and as a measure of self-worth. People talk about football with great pride, and their communities embrace teams and players as their own.

People value and treasure good memories the game brings. Those involved in scandalous activities carry the guilt of their masterminding acts on their shoulders with pride instead of shame.

Promotion and elevation outside merit damages more than the players, community and the game itself. There may be tertiary beneficiaries at a large scale in terms of the business and psychological matters.

However, selfish club owners need to realise that the cash paid in bribes can be used to acquire the best material for their needs. The biggest mistake made in such cases, is trying to get up quicker. The perceived benefits include the sale of players, prominent publicity at a higher league and improved direct financial rewards.

In a vacuum, that would be true. In reality, eliminating competition to be best is worst. True value and worth can be achieved by outclassing the best. More satisfaction comes from playing fair and engaging the top masters of the game and prevailing under all conditions.

Mohammed Ali would never be the greatest boxer by punching air. Unfortunately, the football chancers bribe their way up, eliminate opposition by hook and crook on their way up the ladder. The best way to rise above the rest and stay with the best, would be to equip the teams to build solid and true structures and then engage all the adversaries and prevail.

That built system sustains over the years and keeps the industry revolving perpetually for the top clubs to harvest the talent from the bottom. If the rich clubs destroy the development, the well to tap into will dry. The quality suffers and consequently the very bribing club.

The club owners lose, the community loses and the game loses. As we write, the Witbank community that once had Black Aces, People’s Bank Spurs among others, only prides itself with Witbank Spurs in the National First Division and probably a single ABC Motsepe Second Division, if the ongoing transactions are successful.

Now, the travelling costs will lead to that team closing shop too. The rest of the teams playing in the SAB League may not find joy in winning the play-offs to join an expensive Second Division. While the teams stepped on each other’s toes to go up, they will suffocate under the system they created.

At first sight, it seems good to pull teams down, but playing and competing alone is the worst thing ever, unless you are one of the local clever clubs that serve their own interest at the expense of the whole community.