‘Develop well-defined junior policies’

Lazarus Sauti

The major issue that lies behind poor performance by African teams is the failure by virtually all sporting disciplines to develop well-defined and established junior policies.

In Africa, most – if not all – sporting disciplines fall short on developing junior talent.

This is because coaches and administrators are more concerned about results than player development.

Zimbabwe soccer administrator, Chris Sambo, therefore warns clubs against impulse buying, saying teams should buy players on a need-to-buy basis not ‘because you have the money and resources.’

“Impulse buying can be very disastrous to both the club and the player. I believe clubs should have trials where they will be able to assess players but not this business of just bringing in players even if you have equally good players in that position,” said Sambo.

Delma Lupepe, former Zimbabwe’s AmaZulu Football Club boss believes buying of players does not bring success as believed by some clubs. Thus, he advocates for the development of vibrant junior set-ups.

“This business of buying players for the sake of buying does not help. Clubs, especially long-established ones, should have vibrant junior set-ups where they will be able to tap from,” said Lupepe.

Sharing the same views, Highlanders juniors’ technical overseer Dumaza Dube said the first team’s success depends on a vibrant junior policy.

“We (Highlanders Football Club) want to go back to a scenario where we can have about 80 percent of the first team players coming from our juniors,” he said.

To develop well-defined junior policies, money is a critical ingredient.

Funding is also crucial for the development of grassroot sport and because of this reason; Zimbabwe Football Association Board member for Development John Phiri highlighted the importance of adequate funding for junior national teams and grassroots programmes.

He also said the failure to fund junior national teams and grassroots programmes is very worrying and views an inconsistent supply of quality players from the grassroots as the reason for poor performances by national teams.

It is critical to note that there are few academies or schools of excellence in Africa that are closing the gap and playing a major role in developing talent.

While the efforts of academies can be commended, there is certainly a need to pour more resources towards national programmes aimed at nurturing and identifying raw talent.

Accordingly, ministries responsible for sports in African countries and other stakeholders must craft well defined junior policies to develop sports and to effectively lay the foundation for future competitive national teams.

For instance, schools must have teachers-in-charge of sports.

These teachers should be well versed with all sports codes not only athletics and soccer as the case in most African schools, especially at government-run schools.

Sadly, in Africa, there is clearly no continuity which can benefit a young sportsman in his endeavour to grow into a professional.

This problem should be rectified.

To develop talent, Julius Chakupewa, teacher and coach of Zimbabwe’s Division one side NM Academy, advocates for functional area zone leagues.

“The lower leagues are perfect developmental platform and they help in the identification and weaning of the best talent for promotion to the top leagues,” he said.