Poor grounds are not doing local football any favors

Watching as national football league champions Atraco Fc handed La Jeunesse a rude welcome to life in topflight division with a 6-1 thrashing last weekend at Shyorongi, I could not stop wondering what the score would have been had the ground been only less better. The match was full of goals, seven in total, making it the highest scoring game on the opening weekend of the 2008/09 season. The closest to that had three goals as record nine-time league champions beat another new entrant Amagaju 3-0 in Muhanga. At the potholed Mironko, perennial title hopefuls Rayon Sports failed to score against lowly Police in a game that in 0-0 stalemate. Nonetheless, the 6-1 score line did not reflect what actually happened on the field simply because the playing field could not allow the two sets of players to bring out their best. Without taking anything way from Atraco and their new coach Sam Timbe, the score line could have been different (either less or more depending on which you’re) on a better ground. The poor surface, (bouncy, not clearly cleared) could not allow the players to pass the ball on the ground for even a half a minute! Yet, Shyorongi, which in my observation is not good enough to host league matches is seen as probably the best compared to the rest of the venues that have been used since Amahoro and Nyamirambo stadiums were closed for renovation last season. Ignoring or just taking for granted the fact that things to do with crowd troubles among rivals fans are a thing of the past, particularly in Rwandan football, there is nothing to guarantee security for the players on the field since fans stand just a meter of so from the pitch. But the one man, not very contented with the state of grounds in the country because it doesn’t favor the way he likes his team to play is APR coach Rene Feller, who believes that football is best played and enjoyed when passed on the ground than in the air. “I believe in total football where my team can be able to play it on the ground than in the air, but with the nature of grounds that we’re playing on, it’s never easy for them (his players) to play the way I like them to,” the Dutchman told Times Sport in reference to the grounds like Mironko, Camp Kigali, Shyorongi, Mumena, Muhanga, Gatwaro among others, which are being used for league matches. He added, “I hope that the players playing on bad grounds also get the opportunity to play on good ones as that’s the only way we’re going to get the best out of them hence the development of football in this country.” And getting back to the Atraco, La Jeunesse match, apart from the goals, there was no significant difference between the two teams as they both struggled to keep possession in the midfield. At times, the match looked boring as there was fluidity on either side to give the eyes of the spectators something to enjoy watching. Yet it wasn’t like as if the two teams couldn’t pass the ball well, but the uneven nature of the playing surface couldn’t allow them to. Like Feller put it, there is no way that coaches are going to be able to get the best out of the players while playing on surfaces like that at Shyorongi, Mironko, Gatwaro and Camp Kigali. And where does such a situation leave Rwandan football in general? Your guess is as good as mine. Ends

Lifestyle

Poor grounds are not doing local football any favors