A new culture in football is a crying need
Let me first of all congratulate the former National football captain Anura De Silva on his appointment as the President of the FFSL. Much is expected of you to put our football right and by the year 2017 to have a formidable Senior National Team to bring back the past glory and fame. Initially draw a proper and sensible short term plan and programme to achieve this objective.
Anura De Silva
Then also a long term plan and programme to develop football from the grass root level, viz school, clubs and leagues. Get the right technically knowledgeable men who have football and the country in heart to serve the cause. Please don’t mix-up your priorities, make the same mistake and fall into a mess like your predecessors. Hope and pray under your leadership the game of football in this tiny nation will prosper and go in the right direction.
The growth and development of football is a physical science based on a series of methodical steps taken to instill initially the correct techniques and skills in the tender kids and thereafter present a systematic programme to improve on these basics, before teaching the varied technical ploys in the sport. The mastering of both technique and skills is a prerequisite to achieve technical excellence in any sport. Football without a reasonable degree of perfection in skills and technique, can never contribute to the individual or collective success to the team. However, pregnant one could be with the tactical side of the sport, the lack of adequate skills in him, obviously makes him innocuous if not ineffective. Hence it is of utmost importance to firstly master the technique and skills of the sport, before grasping the technical or the pattern of play.
The ideal stage of learning the basics of football, such a technique and skills is at childhood. It is in the fresh and undisturbed mind and muscle of the child that can easily and effectively take on these basics. The supple muscle and the free mind in the ideal base for a correct beginning in any sport. That is why schools are generally regarded as the nurseries in sports and the finest mentors in sports are attached to them. A sport that does not provide adequate nurseries can never hope to achieve excellence. Such a discipline shall remain technically average or below average in performance. Therefore, the layout for the growth and development of football in schools should not only be prudently planned and methodically implemented but top most priority given at all times. To quote million “The childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day” A good example is the Incumbent President of the FFSL Anura De Silva and the CEO Anthony Pillai, both learned their basics in football from the schools under right mentors , subsequently played club, league and at National level.
Let us see how deep our football has gone into the schools. It is estimated we were over 3000 odd schools in the country, of which not less than 1500 schools have reasonable playing pitches and fields. This is in addition to recreational fields or parks managed by Local Government Authorities in almost every town. On this basis football could easily promote at least 10 per cent of the 1500 schools with playing fields. This means considerable number schools representing our districts and provinces will be competitively involved in football, which should augur well for the future of the sport. Bar cricket however not a single other National Association has been successful in seriously promoting its sports at least 10 per cent of our schools. Football being a common man’s sport played all over the country, a game less time consuming, less expensive and the most popular sport in the world and in our country, it is not only incumbent on the Football Controlling Body to create the proper climate and offer all technical assistance to schools, but a sacred duty cast on them to ensure the healthy growth of the game via the schools.
Humiliating defeats faced by both our Senior and Junior National Teams in the recently concluded international competitions should be an eye – opener to the newly appointed officials of the FFSL. Our football, no doubt, as hit the rock bottom as a result that we have failed to produce adequate quality players from the grass- root level.
If the nurseries don’t provide the future stars in a sport from where else could the production come from? Certainly not from under a magician hat, neither from Brazil, Korea nor Siberia expertise. A person who misses the basics in the school , and forced by circumstance to learn same at adulthood, often tend to be unorthodox or unnatural or rather rigid. On the other hand one who masters the skills in the nurseries, blossom to be natural superstars! In view of these advantages, creating more and more nurseries is the only way to achieve excellence in football.
The Football Federation should implement a sensible soccer coaching programme to schools, covering the entire country with a net works of soccer coaches. These coaches must be registered to the Controlling Body and monitor their progress. Competent and knowledgeable coaches should be appointed to train the school coaches and teachers handling football. Those coaches who produce fruitful result at school level must be given advance training to handle clubs and leagues, subsequently assigned them to handle National Teams under various age groups. Regular seminars, clinics, demonstrations should be arranged for the benefit of the young ones, and periodical follow up of these programmes steadfastly carried out. No doubt it calls for a high degree of application and vigilance. Once manured and nurtured well as a seeding, the growth as a plant and then a huge tree is assured.
The Programme of school football needs tremendous thought and planning and an infinitely high degree of commitment. There is no gloss or glamour in this particular stage of the sport, nor is there praise or publicity for the hard work done. It’s an absolute silent piece of service to football, with no immediate rewards but hopefully years later. Yet it is the most important role in the affairs of the Controlling Body. Unfortunately the absence of praise and publicity – foreign tours and perks in harnessing school talent has driven away the officials and coaches from their solemn duty to serve the schools but seek the glow and glee instead in sport at senior clubs or national level. Ministers and other VIP’s that grace football cup finals at a major level and the ceremonial grandeur of the occasion, with a lot of colour and media publicity draws them to the belief that’s ails well leaving school football in the hands of some teachers or Prefect of Game whose limited influence make school fixtures comparatively look less important and less significant.
The Ministry of sports should compel the Controlling Body those handling football to promote its disciplines at least in 10 percent of the school. It’s responsibility is not merely to introduce the sport but to offer technical knowhow and training facilities to the young hopefuls on a regular basis and also help in drawing them into annual school football championship in the respective age groups. I am prepared to take on the authorities and prove that in football even 5 per cent of our schools do not competitively take part.
Throwing a few balls into the field or giving a few corns or shuttles to play with, is certainly not serious football, but a leisurely recreational pastime which we originally played 100 years ago during the colonial time. As long as this lethargy indifference and deliberate aversion to promote football in schools, the country at national level shall remain a weakling as it is today.
Most of our priorities in promoting and developing football have for decades remained in a jumble if not totally upside down. Neither the Ministry of Education nor the Ministry of sports have cared to study schools football development seriously nor has been viewed in its correct perspective.
Another meaningless exercise our football Controlling Body resort to, is the preparation of selective teams for training purpose with the objective of performing well at a competition. Make no mistake training is absolutely essential to do well. In competition, but that should not be confined to a particular team or squad. In fact training proper must necessary begin with the nurseries, senior school teams, club teams, leagues teams and finally with the national youth team and senior squads. Greater the emphasis at early stages namely schools and clubs the better it would be at national level of performance. If on the other hand there is an absence of proper and regular training at these initial levels one could be sure those has to be an unnecessary long period of continuous training with the national squads and that too with moderate and average class of players.