The Malta Independent on Sunday
Saintfiet must be supported in search for more youngsters
Football commentary
■ Henry Brincat
National coach Tom Saintfiet has come face to face with the reality of Maltese football at present after the recent two friendly matches against Luxembourg and Finland.
After the match against Finland, the Belgian mentor has made it clear that he does not have enough players to choose from to build a squad to his proper liking.
This was certainly not an excuse by the coach for the three consecutive losses his selections have suffered since his appointment as national coach. It is, in fact, what I consider, as the reality of the moment in Maltese football.
Saintfiet said the Luxembourg defeat provided a lot of disappointment for him, the players and the fans, considering the late goal which Luxembourg scored with which they won the match.
Four days later came the defeat against Turkey after a first half flop in which our side conceded three goals in less than 20 minutes.
The Belgian mentor has made an emphasis on youths as he said it was these who should be the basis of the national team of the future. And I cannot but agree with him.
After the match against Luxembourg, he said they had done the right thing in past years to introduce several youngsters in their national squad as that would have helped towards the development of football in that small country. That is why, perhaps, Luxembourg have obtained several good results in recent World Cup qualifiers (including a goalless draw away to France) which have lifted them to 83 in the FIFA ranking list. That is, 102 places above Malta, which is ranked 185. GERMANY’S EXAMPLE And who does not remember Germany – a top nation – who revived their reputation as world beaters by introducing a very successful youth development plan in the early years of this Millennium?
Scores of youngsters became well known and sought after players. Everyone knows what the Germans have achieved since the appointment of national coach Joachim Loew in the year 2006.
REALITY OF MALTESE FOOTBALL
But back to the local scene: where will our youngsters come from? Every club, or almost, has its own nursery nowadays. Youth football is spreading, but what are the benefits being reaped? The reality is that we are not producing the goods everyone desires and this despite all the money that is being spent!
As Saintfiet rightly said, he had only 56 Premier League players – more or less - to choose from for national team squad purposes. It sounds like a joke, but this is the reality of Maltese football.
In actual fact, there are 98 foreigners (just playing) who can play in our Premier League at any one time during a league match.
It is also a fact which no one can deny that the majority of these foreigners - though not all – have contributed towards a general improvement of the game in Malta. 11 FOREIGNERS In recent years, there had also been a proposal for each club to be able to play 11 foreign players – correct me if I am wrong. One of the reasons for such a proposal was that local clubs taking part in the European club competitions were not able to advance due to the fact that they did not have the same number of foreigners in their squad as most of the others taking part in those competitions. However, they failed to mention that many of these foreigners are more or less of the same levels as Maltese footballers! They must be aware that to advance in the Champions League and the Europa League, they have to pay much more to be able to attract not the top players in European football, but some who might be playing in the second or third division of their respective countries!
Of course, the clubs have their own ideas on how to generate enough funds to be able to move forward and participation in the European competitions is just one reason to do that. But please, I feel this is unacceptable, especially if it is allowed to happen at the expense of the game of football in general in Malta.
Since the start of this new Millennium, we can freely say that gone are the days when local clubs used to produce players of the calibre of Carmel Busuttil, John Buttigieg, Raymond Vella, Gilbert Agius, Michael Mifsud (not to mention a host of others from earlier years). I believe Mifsud was the last one to make a real name for himself abroad (especially in Norway, Germany and England), although Andre Schembri is also doing well, though in a lesser known league – in Cyprus. MALTESE ABROAD
Saintfiet also said that we do not have enough players militating abroad. That is also a fact. But what can one do when, quite unfortunately, the standards of our players do not match those requested by the foreign clubs?
This was also evident last Monday when Malta fell apart in the first half against Finland. The latter also had several youngsters introduced into their squad and I was really impressed with their immense commitment – something which I think is sometimes missing in most of our players.
We have been saying all along, even before Saintfiet arrived, that these are the best players we have at the moment. And there should not be any doubt about it. We must all admit we have our limitations in this regard and it is useless to make comparisons with Luxembourg or Finland.
We must also admit that a country like Luxembourg, not to mention Liechtenstein and Andorra, have the advantage of being close to top European footballing nations and many of their players can move easily to another country to play even in top European Leagues.
Here, in this regard, we are at a big disadvantage as it also becomes somewhat expensive to send a player to militate abroad. PLAYING
To cut a long story short, it is obvious that there are other factors which are hampering our game from improving to reach the desired levels. It was nice to hear Saintfiet saying since he arrived that he would do everything possible to see Malta playing offensive football. But this has certainly not materialised so far. MALTA MOOD
And I believe it will remain difficult to see a Malta side in attack- IN ATTACKING ing mood. Simply because the opponents have to let you attack to be able to do so. With the present few players available for selection in our squad, we cannot hope to see much change in the near future.
If we are all entertaining hopes of a general improvement, we must all – MFA, clubs and sporting public - give the national coach our full support as he intends to continue working hard towards the development of the game of football on these islands.
The first thing that has to be done in my humble opinion, is to ‘copy’ what the others are doing. The MFA must work hard in making its national team sectors – especially the Under 14s, 16s, 17s and 19s – stronger so that the coach will be able to have more players at his disposal for selection. It must be made clear to these youngsters (and their parents) that they are being given the chance to start a career in future which might reap rich dividends.
I am sure the beginning will be very difficult, but this should not hamper plans for the improvement in the standard of local players.
A lot has already been done in this regard, but it has been proved to be far from enough. The Association and the clubs must work hand in hand in a way which will enable young players to be able to leave their mark in the international scene in future.