EFA trials: Good plan, poor execution
... WITH ASHMOND NZIMA
THIS past Thursday, the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) raised eyebrows when it announced trials for the national Under-20s football team.
As per the advert ran on the country’s football mother body official online platforms, the trials were to be conducted at the EFA’s Lobamba Technical Centre, between this past Saturday and Sunday.
The trials were open to players born between December 2005 and December 2007. In simpler terms, the trialists were supposed to be aged between 15 and 17.
If surprise was an organisation, it would be EFA.
Why did they announce the trials two days before their implementation?
Why only Lobamba was the selected venue?
Will they will be inclusive enough? What is the use of the PLE Under-19s League if players from that division cannot represent the country?
Those are some of the questions that begged to be answered after the surprise call by the EFA.
At face value, this was an excellent plan or idea, as it sought to create a wide pool of players for the coaches to select from, but the execution was terrible.
For starters, the EFA has technical directors (TDs) across the country’s four regions. If the trials were to be taken serious, these TDs were expected to implement what can be dubbed a talent identification programme in all the regions.
Development
In almost all the regions, there are development leagues. The EFA TDs, in partnership with the national Under-20s football team coach, were supposed to scout for talent from these leagues.
Best players were supposed to be picked to compete in a national festival to select a national team of at least 30 players.
Another option would be to use the outstanding players from the Build It Under-13s tournament of the last few years, who fall in the required age categories. At this rate, I’m afraid to include
EFA and progress in one sentence.
At a time when the economy is bad and people are struggling to make ends meet, it is unfair to expect youngsters to come all the way from Mahamba outside Nhlangano or Matsamo in northern Hhohho to Lobamba for the trials, when they can be assessed closer to home.
It is safe to call them Lobamba trials. This makes the whole exercise a mockery. It was just a sheer waste of time and money.
Lucky
EFA would be very lucky to get three good players from the past weekend’s trials. After all, such haphazardly organised events are bound to attract ‘chancers’. In most cases, expecting EFA to deliver on its mandate is like digging an elephant’s grave with a takeaway fork, but we keep giving them the benefit of the doubt.
For a small country like Eswatini, you cannot centralise critical programmes like national teams trials.
They need to be decentralised. Period. Instead of stressing about the juniors’ trials, the EFA should be assisting the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) to establish an Under-17s or at least an Under-15s league.
After all, it is a wait-and-see, but it is highly unlikely that the trials will yield the desired results.