sports opinion

just slogans

Hussein Al Shaibani

November 09 2021

For many years, the slogans of grassroots work and attention to the age groups and academies and the development of generations remained just slogans raised by the boards of directors of clubs and teams with each beginning of the work period of a new council, as if it were a banner raised on occasions to beautify the image without a real conviction from the game officials of the importance of the age stages and academies in football and their role The main building block for future generations, and unfortunately they focused on the resident players for the first team.

The observer of the game situation does not find it difficult to perceive the inverted pyramid that characterizes the work in most of our federations and clubs, as the difference appears in the interest in the first team at the expense of the age groups and academies, whether in terms of budgets or providing needs and contracting with the most famous international coaches, which makes work in The Sunni groups lack organization and stability, suffer from the absence of long-term plans and programs, are managed with the idea of ​​a hobby, and are closely linked to the people and officials in the departments, and not to the studied strategies that characterize the work approach in the spherically developed countries, whether in the Asian continent or in the rest of the world.

Through field testimonies of elite of the most prominent coaches working in the field of the age groups and academies, whether with clubs or teams, we clearly stand on the reality of the basic work situation, whether in the selection of coaches and technical devices to lead the age groups and academies, which is usually subject to random selection and lack of clarity of selection criteria, in addition to The fluctuation of programs and plans in work and shortening them to short-term goals and working in a circle of diligence that does not help build interconnected generations that rise to the first team in positive conditions, and focus on temporary results with the first team, and the problem lies in how to make a football player, the practice of the ball requires sacrifices A large number of morning and evening training, long camps and travel, so the football player must devote himself to this game and become professional in it until his profession becomes a football player.Talents exist, and we only have to discover, refine and develop them, and that planning in our clubs and teams is focused on the first team only. What are the criteria for selecting coaches in the youth sector and academies in our clubs?!

Friendship relations, unfortunately, competence is the last criteria to be adopted. One day, I met former Spain and Real Madrid player Silgado, and I asked him a question about the secret of the development of Spanish football, whether the teams of the age groups or the first team, and his answer was we worked on developing coaches in the Sunni stages first, Therefore, promising talents appeared, and in our clubs there is an absence of talents due to the absence of the quality of coaches in the years and academies.

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