FIFA special programme for Sihlangu
LOBAMBA – The Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) has supported the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) with a development programme to improve the national teams.
In a bid to boost the senior national team; Sihlangu’s performance as the country still dreams of qualification into a major tournament like the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) for the first time, the EFA got a nod from the world soccer governing body, FIFA, to start a development programme for the ages under-13, 15 and 17.
The programme was officially launched yesterday at the EFA Technical Centre. EFA executive committee member, and Lubombo Regional Football Association (LRFA) Chairperson, Nichodemus ‘Ace’ Mashwama represented EFA
President Peter ‘Samora’ Simelane at the launch.
FIFA was also represented by its Technical Consultant Serane Letsoaka, who said the programme came after the global mother body of football saw that some countries, including Eswatini spent more money on the senior national teams. “FIFA, for many years realised that the development of football in most countries is at the top, we’re always thinking of Sihlangu in the case of Eswatini. We always spend our resources on the senior team,” Letsoaka said.
He said some countries do not spend their money at the top, but used money for development purposes, especially creating a strong foundation. “If the foundation is strong enough everything takes care of itself, because everybody wants to sponsor a good product,” Letsoaka said.
He said if the country did not have a good foundation it would keep on hiring and firing coaches, whether local or foreign coaches. He said if the country had a good foundation anyone could coach the national team. “FIFA then decided to say let us be hands on to help these countries to have this talent development scheme. Two or three years ago we made an analysis of countries throughout the world, including Eswatini and based on the reports we saw the challenges of the country,” the FIFA technical consultant said.
Letsoaka explained that with Eswatini it was decided that they should start at the bottom because if they had good competitive juniors, they would not worry about the senior teams. “Eswatini would not have to worry about qualifying for major continental tournaments and even the World Cup, because of the strong foundation,” he explained.
He also said should the programme go well, Eswatini will in five years would look back and say this is the fruit of the tree ‘we planted’. Letsoaka further assured emaSwati that from this programme, some of the youngsters would be senior national team stars by 2030/35. The programme is expected to be held at six centres countrywide, on a weekly basis.
Meanwhile, Mashwama thanked Letsoaka for accepting the challenge to help the country in the FIFA project, assuring him that as EFA they would try their level best to implement it well. He believed that in the next five years the country would see the fruits of this programme. The big positive here is that it is not only focussed on Sihlangu, but will also develop the women’s football game too as the programme includes under-13, 15 and 16s for both genders and will go ahead with training sessions every Saturday.