I was reading an article the other day about the forthcoming African Nations Cup to be co-hosted by Ghana and Nigeria this month, and it is amazing that the majority of the countries involved are putting trust in European or foreign coaches. Check this out;
Nigeria- Jo Bonfrere- (Dutch)
Ghana- Guiseppe Dossena(Italian)
Tunisia- Francesco Scoglio(Italian)
Cameroon- Pierre Lechantre(French)
Togo- Ebeherd Vogel(German)
Algeria- Josip Skobler(Croat)
Egypt- Gerard Gili(French)
Burkina Faso- Rene Trejman(Belgian)
Senegal- Peter Schnittger(German)
Gabon- A Brazilian.
What is the problem folks?African countries tend to be afflicted with this menace of idolizing foreign coaches, and over the past years this has not paid much dividend. Most of these coaches are hardly household names in their countries of origin, and we`ve seen a whole bunch of them come and go, and eventhough they claim to want to develop African football, I personally am yet to register any remarkable difference, except that these coaches get mighty rich and leave our football federations impoverish.
I have always been critical of this romance with foreign coaches. Usually communication is a big problem. Remember the Russian coach who took Cameroon to Italy 90, and the Spanish coach our own football squad had some years ago? They just can`t talk directly to the boys because of this communication barrier and have to rely on interpreters most of the time. Consequently the flow of instructions is hampered somewhere, and they get stucked. Too bad.
All these countries have stockpiles of very experienced veterans who could easily do this work better(My observation). Ghana for e.g could have relied on the "Golden Boy" Abdul Razak, or Opoku N`ti, Nigeria have "The Big Boss" Stephen Keshi or Henri Nwosu, Algeria could go for Rabah Madjer or Kourichi, Morocco have Timoumi or Zaki Badou, Senegal could go for Gueye Saine or Sheikh Seck. The list goes on and on.
However it will be remiss of me if I fail to pay homage to some of those coaches who had actually done a lot to uplift the standard of African football. Claude Le Roy has been an outstanding example in spotting many talents especially in Cameroon, but hey these boys were already talented before Claude came to Africa I`ll assume.
Yus, Coach, Adu Boy and the rest of the crew what do you think about this one? Am I right or wrong? By the way Yus thanks for that wonderful analysis. Yes I can send you tapes. Just let me know the matches you want, and were to send to.
I hope the football federations would realize some day that it is not worth squandering all this money on these coaches when the results are not satisfactory.When are we gonna learn. I wonder why this hobnobbing with foreign coaches. I just wonder!
Regards,
Omar.
-----Opprinnelig melding-----
Fra: Yusupha Jow <[log in to unmask]>
Til: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Dato: 30. desember 1999 07:42
Emne: FOOTBALL (ANC)
>The African Nations Cup is only three weeks away and I assume that this is
>the right time to assess the strengths of the favorites that will partake in
>this competition. The tournament will be played in Ghana and Nigeria. It
>will be the first time the tournament will be jointly hosted. A great test
>of our ability to work together.
>As usual, the tournament will be broadcast around the World. Our European
>members of the list will have the privilege of watching it live on Eurosports
>and other channels. Omar and CO, please send us some tapes. There will be a
>few soccer bars that will broadcast the games live in major U.S cities. The
>matches might be broadcast live in Canada too. Also, those of us that have
>satellite dishes can watch some of the games on ART (Arabic Channel). Call
>your providers for more details. The tournament is a big deal now and
>hopefully the host nations will uphold their part of the bargain by making
>sure the communication facilities that will ensure a smooth broadcast are in
>place.
>
>All the teams are in the process of making final preparations by camping in
>Europe and elsewhere. I hope we can get an exchange going on which teams are
>the favorites. It seems as if, like many other things in our beloved
>continent, predicting an outcome is always hard. But the one of the
>following teams will definitely win the tourney: :^ )
>
>NIGERIA
>The Nigerians are camped in Malaga, Spain and, as usual, their preparations
>have been chaotic. But what's new? Nigeria is a chaotic country and the
>same rules apply to everything they do. Only 16 of their army of
>professionals have shown up for camp so far. But their new coach, Jo
>Bonfrere, has lot to do because they have been annihilated by two Spanish
>regional sides in the past week. However, with Nigeria friendlies don't mean
>much. After all, they got to the second round of La Mundial in France after
>two weeks of training. They are the top dogs and will be tough to beat in
>front of 75,000 fervent fans in Lagos
>Key players: Nwanku Kanu, JJ Okocha, Finidi George and Taribo West
>
>MOROCCO
>The best prepared of the lot. The Atlas Lions, under erstwhile coach Henri
>Michel, have been preparing for years. They seem to, unlike most teams south
>of the Sahara, have their house in order. Their preparations have been going
>on for the past year and they have played against variety of European teams
>with good results. But the Moroccans have always wilted against the physical
>West African sides like Cameroon and Nigeria. They should get to at least
>the quarterfinals and will be tough to beat.
>Key players: Mustafa Hadji Youssef Chippo, Mustapha Hadda, Adel Ramzy
>
>SOUTH AFRICA
>The best local players on the continent. They have one of the best organized
>domestic leagues and have a tons of technically sound players to choose from.
>The Bafana Bafana, as they are fondly called, are probably the most
>tactically ad technically adept side on the continent and their style of
>soccer is closer to the European style. They will be missing two key of
>their main strikers Phil Masinga and Benni McCarthy. With top defender Lucas
>Radebe marshaling the defense, I will not be surprised to see them play
>cohesive tactical soccer on the road to lifting the cup.
>Key players: Lucas Radebe, Quinton Fortune, Herman MKalele,
>
>CAMEROON
>The Camerounians have an impressive footballing legacy. Undoubtedly the best
>in the continent. They also have a lots of good and physically strong
>players all over the Europe and the country can be described as a soccer
>factory. They could probably pick an all star village team and still qualify
>for the cup. Expect them to get past the first round and maybe all the way
>to the finals.
>Key players: Rigobert Song, Mark Vivian Foe, Samuel Olembe, Patrick Mboma
>
>GHANA
>The Black Stars formerly known as the Brazil of Africa, despite never making
>the World Cup, have a claim to African Team of The Century. They have won
>more Nations cups than anyone else. Also, other African sides have used Ghana
>as a benchmark to gauge their strength. Under Italian coach, Dossena, the
>Stars just lost to Tunisia to end their 14 month unbeaten streak. The home
>field advantage will be a telling factor and the Ghanaians will be one of the
>hot favorites to win the tourney. Their record in the junior tournaments has
>been exemplary and they have outstanding professionals all over Europe.
>Key players: Samuel Ossei Kuffour, Richard kingson, samuel Johnson, Charles
>Okunnor, Samuel Asamoah
>
>SENEGAL
>The sleeper of the tourney will be Senegal. Les Guyndaye du Senegal. Of
>course our brothers and sisters from Senegal can be all talk. But, to their
>credit, The Gambia has never managed to beat Senegal. Les Lions, under
>German coach Schittinger, have prepared well for the tourney. They also had
>to go the tough route to get to the event, playing against the highly rated
>Zimbabweans and upstart Eritrea. But our neighbors did us proud and
>qualified against tough odds. Among their impressive results have been a
>draw with Morocco, yet another thorough beating of our beloved Scorpions and
>also a victory over Cote D'Ivoire. I expect them to spring some major upsets
>and they should at least get to the second round.
>Key players: Henri Camara, Alieu Cisse, Kalilou Fadiga
>
>Well, this is a brief synopsis of the teams that I think will have a major
>impact on the tourney. Let me know what you think.
>
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