Rwandan football needs better structures, not expensive coaches

Looking at our poor performances in regional, continental and international competitions, including Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup qualifiers, even Sir Ferguson or Jose Mourinho can’t do much to being us the success we crave for without proper foundation. The Government and national football governing body, FERWAFA, must do put in place proper structures for the development of Rwandan football or else we will never stop hiring and sacking coaches. The federation has to establish and implement new youth development structures, with a vision and philosophy detailing how the game should be played and leadership has to be established. And the government must deal with the issues of financing the construction of proper infrastructure around the country. We need to train as many qualified Rwandan coaches as possible instead of hiring expensive foreign coach, who more often than not, don’t even two years before they are sacked for failing to take the national team to the next level where it can compete well with the best on the continent. If we can send about five Rwandan coaches to be trained each year in either Germany or England, can you image how many well trained coaches the country will be possessing within three years? And in return, one of them could be the gen that may save the country so much in tax-payers’ money the government spends on hiring expensive European coach. Ferwafa should have a clear plan and strategy with the sole intention of encouraging better development of young players with professional people put in charge. It should be made mandatory for every team in the National Football league to have an academy with operating facility which would in turn widen the scope of talents detection for the national youth teams. They should be granted licenses to promote them to different divisions. This will encourage many young players to take up the game; it will also bring more spectators to stadiums, especially family members and relatives to attend different games to watch their children playing. Youth development should be the fundamental part of our coaching ethos and this philosophy can lead out teams to success, a thriving national league. Obtaining sponsorship to make these projects work well should be the main objective not only for Ferwafa, but also the individual clubs and to some extent the government. To hope that the national football federation can alone, fund the youth development programmes is asking too much of a body that even struggles to get sponsors for the second division and the women national league. But with team effort, planning and strategy, the country can raise money to run the youth structures effectively. When the people concerned are putting together their plans, they need to remember that it’s very much like job-hunting. For best results, don’t count on letters to do the job, networking works best. The key is working together with ideas and vision to nurture the grassroots and we must refine our grassroots strategies and adapt them to future needs.