Wither football youth development

FOOTBALL clubs have been urged to rethink their development systems in order to allow talent to emerge within their structures rather than have senior teams dominated by new arrivals.

Fifa football administration instructor, Kennedy Ndebele said clubs were failing to reap from player development due to focus on first teams rather than structural development of footballers. Ndebele noted there was a worrying trend where clubs seem intent on producing results with the senior team but are not willing to plough into the lower structures.

Most Premier Soccer League clubs have been focusing more on bringing in experienced players than grooming and promoting young talent to senior sides. Club Licensing provides for clubs to have development sides in the Under-13, Under-15,Under-17 and Under-19 sides that compete in annual competitions.

“Players should be groomed systematically for the future starting from the grassroots but with more focus on youth development, that is players aged between 12 and 18. However, there has been a tendency by teams to put emphasis more on the senior team with little or no attention being put in the youth development, which is then starved of adequate equipment, monitoring, medical care, school education and ensuring kids play in satisfactory tournaments,” said Ndebele, who is also the Premier Soccer League chief executive officer.

He said in proper youth development, a player should develop gradually within the club’s systems from Under-13 going up until they reach the senior team, meaning they graduate at every stage, creating little room for clubs to hold wholesale trials at every level as they already have set players.

“Clubs should only be looking at few positions they want to fill and this can be done by identifying players during the course of the season rather than holding trials. It is a sad scenario when you see a player from a club’s development structures breaking into the first team at 24 or 25 years old, yet internationally we see young players like Kylian Mbappe taking the limelight just at 16, the likes of Marvelous Nakamba and Tino Kadewere who moved to Europe at 18 and 21 respectively, have a traceable history in their playing career right from juniors going up,” said Ndebele.

He added that another critical area clubs were not looking at was the aspect of compensation and where they are likely to benefit more from their players if they stay longer within their system. According to Fifa regulations, training compensation is paid until the age of 23.

Ndebele however, pointed out that for this to be effective it was critical for the football federation to have a clear co-ordination of youth development in a structured manner.

“It’s unfortunate that we have an FA that is spending more time fighting than focusing on the development of the game resulting in the lack of national youth development competitions. With the introduction of the player passport, clubs can keep records of the players in their books right from Under-13 to make it easier for them to claim compensation,” he said.

Ndebele added players should be developed systematically and in a structured manner just like how a farmer would prepare to till the land, plant, put fertiliser, watch the plant grow, tend the plant prune it, apply pesticides when

necessary and then harvest at the right time.

He added another unfortunate element was lack of proper training in grassroots with primary schools failing to use small sided pitches.

“You pass through Helemu Primary School and you find young footballers there playing size five football when they should be playing with size three or four and they are playing 11 v 11 in the standard pitch for professional games when they should be playing compactly to ensure they have more time on the ball and are able to develop their ball control and passing abilities. This means at grassroots players are not trained properly hence later they will not be fully adept at the game,” he said.

Bosso90 coach, Melusi “Mabaleka” Sibanda said while they were holding trials, they will also be promoting youngsters from the Under-18 side.

“During the trials we are not seeking many players but a few to see if we can find any gems, especially from outside Bulawayo,” he said.

Clubs’ quest to win the Premiership has seen them go for the broke with teams such as Ngezi Platinum, Chicken Inn, ZPC Kariba and FC Platinum swooping on experienced players rather than focusing on promoting young talent.