By Brima Bah
It was a foregone conclusion that Leone Stars had virtually nothing, except perhaps the much-touted FIFA ranking, to play for in that final group stage qualifying match against Equatorial Guinea for the Brazil 2014 World Cup. Cape Verde emerged as the surprise winners of the group, ahead of Tunisia who had all but sealed the top spot. Leone Stars’ final match was a fixture that could have actually served as an opportunity to rally and prepare for future meaningful campaigns.
What we saw on Saturday, 7 September at the National Stadium was a full scale assault to get a win that was actually pointless. Thankfully, Leone Stars won, and hopefully there will be a marginal improvement in our FIFA ranking, but certainly not meaningful enough to take us out of the undesirable 70-something position. This is according to my calculation, considering the other international results, especially in Africa.
What then was the rationale behind pumping the hundreds of millions of Leones that would, like all the other precious tax payers’ Leones, go unaccounted for again? Players were flown in from all over the world to feature in a squad that could neither have played all of them, nor could have made much difference to the country anyway, at the regrettable expense of the many fine home-based players.
I listened to and read, rather depressingly, the argument of the indefinite suspension of the local league and the concomitant effect it will have on our local players. As much as I agreed that lack of competitive matches affects the overall form of a player, it was laughable that some of the invited players were either unattached or were having less than desirable playing time in their clubs. What I tried not to laugh about actually was the worrisome trend of the few big names that had demonstrated some potential to represent Sierra Leone in some of the major leagues in Europe being been sold or loaned to clubs in lower tier competitions.
Now, I think some serious and sincere attention needs to be given to this matter, as it is obvious that the current state of politics in the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) is directly, or indirectly, affecting our players at home and abroad. Our home-based players who, in spite of the brutal assault on the game by people who have no business running around football, were left out in the cold. They were implicitly told that being away from the boring and epileptic local game, even if playing little or no football abroad, is far better than being caught up in the local chaos.
Now that all hope is clearly gone for a surprise appearance at Brazil 2014, the collective attention of the Leone Stars faithful has turned towards a desired return to the Africa Cup of Nations from which we have missed out for eight consecutive times (past seventeen years!) For Sierra Leone, 2015 is light years away until it finally dawns on us, when it might just be too late. The draw for the AFCON 2015 qualifiers will be made sometime this month, along with the play-off draw for the Brazil 2013 final stage, of which we are no party. The question, long before now, should have been, “how prepared are we for the AFCON 2015 qualifying campaign?” But as I write this piece, the minders of the game are probably very busy working out various permutations and second-guessing what our upcoming FIFA ranking would be.
A very improved ranking would exempt us from the preliminary playoff, but what it will not do is increase our chances of qualifying ahead of better prepared nations. I have always argued that people just don’t win or lose. We lose to those who are either superior to or better prepared than us. And Leone Stars, we all know, are not the most superior team in Africa. We are also aware that we have not been very strong in the department of early preparation. In fact, that has been our biggest weakness, both in the short term and in the long term. With some of our Leone Stars players aging, there has not been a robust effort in preparing their replacements. Although, admittedly, we have seen the introduction of a couple of young promising players like Kweku Davies and Mustapha Dumbuya in the national senior side, we are as a country completely lacking in the other lower national sides such as the under-23 and under-21. The logical thing would have been to develop strong under-23 and -21 sides, like Ghana and other countries do, and guide the graduation of those players on to the senior national team.
Bringing in young players from academies to play in the senior national side tells of a lack of established talent in the country. Through discussions with football fans around town, I have come to observe that there is a Sierra Leonean way of understanding the game of Football. Whenever you mention Brazil or Europe as a case in point, you are laughed at and dismissed. “Dis naSalone!” If we continue the Sierra Leonean way, then, I’m very sorry, but we will always fail. Here are some facts to ponder: Ronaldo Dalima of Brazil came through from the Brazil under-17 side, and was gradually introduced to the national senior side as a young player who largely watched and learned from the Bench. Ronaldhino and Kaka similarly went through the ranks, playing in the under-21 and -23 sides before shooting to stardom. Germany: the likes of Ozil, Khedira, Muller and others are graduates from the youth sides before eventually making the call up to the senior side. The recent under-23 European Cup Winners, Spain, featured a side full of world class young players who still had to go through the mill. The likes of ThiagoAlcantra, Isco, Illaramendi and others would now naturally graduate into the senior Spanish side, with the logical view of replacing the soon-to-be tired legs of the likes of Xavi, Iniesta, Alonso and others. That is how others do it, and for God’s sakes, it is what works. So we must pick up the pieces. We might have failed in our dream appearance in Brazil, but Russia 2018 is attainable, if we start focusing now on our true under 21 and 23 teams.
I must just simply mention Egypt here. They won their group hands down with a team of players averagely aged 21 years! They gave up hope of progressing into the last AFCON 2013 tournament to focus on building a brand new team. They brought in the experienced American coach, Bob Bradley who has succeeded in packaging a squad that would once again contend for the top spot in Africa for a very long time to come. The lessons are there, but we have found it too hard to learn and adapt ourselves to change. We cannot afford not to pick up the pieces, and get back on track.
To get back on track, SLFA must do far more than it professes to be doing. Serious and sincere efforts must be made to get onboard everybody concerned in moving football forward. The local league must resume. Laugh it off if you may, but our Premier League, as bad as it is, is far better that some of the Scandinavian and Eastern European leagues in which some of our so-called professionals get less than desirable minutes to play in a whole season. SLFA must also respect experience: if they cannot afford an experienced foreign coach, let them show some respect to our experienced local coaches who could at least handle the under 21 and -23 sides of the national team and not give the national senior team to someone who is only fit to be an under-14 coach.
The author is a sports analyst and commentator.
(C) Politico 17/09/13
