Short term success not the solution

Rwanda’s sports federations, under the pressure of the demanding fans, always try to achieve excellent performances yet, in real sense; they have invested in eggs that can easily break without serving the nation for long.The biggest problem for Rwanda’s sports has been quick fixation. Truth be told, you can’t build a strong house on a weak foundation. Let’s not be fooled into thinking that we can achieve success without a strong base upon which this success must be founded.Even if we were to hire geniuses like Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho or Phil Jackson to handle our national teams under similar situations, nothing would be achieved.On many occasions in the previous world or continental qualifiers, we have always missed out on qualifications without a clear reason. Many will see it as being unlucky, others will point to poor preparations, others will say Juju but I strongly disagree. Our problem has always been quick fixation.At the beginning of each campaign like Zonal basketball competitions, Afcon, Cecafa, Davis Cup or ITF circuits the population is full of expectations an indication that the jinx is going to be broken this time around.After drawing Nigeria 0-0 in Kigali in February, everyone was hoping that Rwanda would pull off a positive result in Nigeria in the second leg. In football, we have sometimes come close but if truth is to be told – our national teams are not yet ready to battle with Africa’s best.It has been said over and over again that invest in youth structures and the end product will be there for all to see.It is a fact that Rwanda is home to great talents and the likes of Jimmy Gatete, Haruna Niyonzima, Olivier Karekezi, Desire Mbonabucya, Jimmy Mulisa, Sibomana Abdoul, are just but a sample. However, their success and achievements might have been a result of self determination and individual efforts.Haruna and Karekezi have had to endure harsh and testing times in their careers to reach where they are now. The Yanga Fc midfielder had to spend a couple of years in Rwanda while Karekezi had a spell in Rwanda before moving to Sweden and Norway and back to Rwanda.Elias Uzamukunda and Salomon Nirisarike are playing in lowly leagues in Europe something that is laying concrete foundations for their careers in the future.Scores of such talents remain in Rwanda where there are no youth structures.The biggest question is; what are we doing locally to grow the technical skills of our players? What are we doing to improve the technical standards of our coaches in the leagues, youth structures (academies) who spend most of their time with these players before they are ready for national teams?In 2004, APR broke a fret by qualifying to the second round stage of the African Champions League after eliminating Egyptian side El Zamalek on a 6-4 goal aggregate.Zamalek, champions of Africa, a record five times were packed with Egyptian stars with the likes of Hosni Mohammed and his brother Mohammed Hassan well versed in the rigors of international football. But what has since gone wrong at APR?By the turn of 2005 some fans were a little bit more ambitious. They had perhaps had too much of a good thing basing on the 2004 triumph over the Knights of Cairo.The APR of then was full of international stars, including Rwandan internationals Jimmy Mulisa, Jimmy Gatete and Olivier Karekezi just to mention but a few.A few years later, only Elias Ntaganda and goalkeeper Aime Ndizeye were the surviving members from that squad which shocked the Egyptians with free-flowing and attacking football masterminded by the now disgraced Jean Marie Ntagwabira.APR failed to keep the fire burning.Matters weren’t helped by the rude sacking of seventeen players two seasons later, including striker Gatete.A team isn’t built overnight, it’s a gradual process, and if APR is to join the elite class, I believe professionalising club operations should be the next thing to have a look at.The club’s scouting network should be transparent to avoid big spending on average players.I think this is very important. For the club to show more ambition they would have to spend more money on good players and so it is imperative they gave the technical team time to succeed. So how can APR go about putting things right?We have players on the national team who can’t string meaningful passes together in a match. We have players who can’t cross well and more worryingly, some lack control skills.Like it or not, these are our best and they have to be on the team. Who takes the blame? National coaches–why? Here is the reason. Concentrating on quick fixes, ignoring the fact that we have to fix our technical part of every sport.

Sports

Short term success not the solution