NFD U-23 rules are just confusing everyone

The Under-23 rule in the National First Division needs a serious rethink. I say this because having spoken to a number of coaches across the division, none has ever spoken kindly about it.

And this week I had a little chat with Jomo Cosmos owner, coach – and maybe I should also add team bus driver – Jomo Sono on the same issue.

“The King” made it clear he doesn’t see the sense of it, but admitted that because they voted for it, they should follow it. Ironically Sono has been charged by the Premier Soccer League for bending the same rule. But that is a story for another day.

The argument which I posed to him was that with the rule stat- ing that a team should have at least five Under-23 players for any match – two on the field and three on the bench – does this not allow for entitlement for those players.

I mean, let’s create a scenario and say a team has just five of those players. One gets suspended, and two get injured. That means there are two left who are eligible to play. This means those two may skip training or not really commit themselves because they are technically guaranteed a starting berth.

Sono saw my point and added that sometimes players fall sick suddenly. “What happens if one falls sick at the airport and the doctors declare him unfit to travel or to play? Do we have to cancel the match or continue and show @SbongsKaDonga his card and say he is not here because he is sick but is in the starting team?,” asked the man popularly known as Bra J to his team.

He complained that the rule doesn’t serve its primary mandate which is to help with the development of players because national team selectors hardly look in the NFD anyway. So who are those players being developed for? It must be clear that no team likes playing in the NFD which in isiZu- lu we call ihlathi (bush) because of the shenanigans that sometimes go on in the league.

Sono suggested that if this rule is aimed at ensuring developing youngsters, then maybe it should be used in the Multichoice Diski Challenge – the Absa Premiership’s reserve league.

I second that thought fully. Golden Arrows have used the MDC tournament to give their youngsters some experience and it has worked like magic.

Abafana Bes’thende’s golden boy, Nduduzo Sibiya – yes the one famous for running rings around the Mamelodi Sundowns defence before scoring an admirable goal recently – was the star of the team’s reserve team who won the MDC last season.

The 21-year-old was then promoted to the senior team at the beginning of this season and he has become one of Clinton Larsen’s solid performers. In the MDC there is not really much pressure for results and that gives the players room to develop properly.

It is a different story in the NFD where all teams’ main aim is to win promotion to the elite league. Every team in that division wants to be in the Premiership and the pressure is unbelievable.

Last season I witnessed a few occasions where the team would start with the required number of Under-23 players, but they would be substituted within the first 10 minutes of the match. In my books that kills the player rather than makes him.