Brito’s tips for local football
HIGHLANDERS Football Club coach, Baltemar Brito has highlighted two aspects that he feels if improved on could aid in upping the quality of football played in the country.
These areas are of concern to Brito that he thinks major stakeholders should look into them in order to raise the football standards.The Brazil born Portuguese national Brito is of the view that there should be a Premier League standard ball that is used by all the teams at training and on match days. There is no standard ball for Zimbabwe’s top flight league and in some matches teams use three different types of balls and according to Brito, that is one of the reasons why the football standards will not improve in the country.
If the league is to have a standard ball, all the players will get accustomed to it hence they won’t face challenges in their matches especially with the type of ball used. Secondly, the Bosso gaffer argues that standard of the playing pitch conditions has to be upgraded and also the pitch dimensions have to be the same throughout.
The issue of soccer pitches has been a challenge in the country and definitely the pitch standards are different.
Some pitches are very wet on playing days, some have taller grass, some are bumpy and the width and length of these playing fields differ from stadium to stadium. This according to Bosso coach has to be looked into and be improved if the country dreams of improving the quality and standard of football. Brito is of the view that those are the basic keys to unlock the full football potential in the country.
“My advice for Zimbabwean football is that the top flight league should have some set standards. Those governing local football should think deeply about what we suggesting if they want to improve the standards of the game. The first one is the match ball. The premier league should be the same for every game. There also should be standard conditions for the match field and it’s dimension. This will help these players grow and develop the standards of football in the country. Everyone should care about that. We are not criticising but just giving advice. We have had one game where we had three types of match balls. One with pressure, the other with too much pressure and one new. They kept changing the balls during the match,” said Brito.
Brito said it is a challenge to maintain a playing style owing to the different pitch conditions each playing week.
“It’s one thing to have a wide field then a small one. But we are Highlanders, we have to go to every field and try to conquer and play good football but at times that is not easy because sometimes you go to a small field and you are trying to play from the back, it’s easy to make a mistake when you keep the ball. Some of the pitches do not allow you to keep the ball because they are small and some are bumpy” said Brito.
The former Chelsea technical member has been critical about the issue of match balls and playing fields for some time and it remains to be seen whether the powers be would heed his call. He was also quick to point out that even teams that use the pitches for their training must take good care of them and help maintain the standards.
“We train at White City and we make sure one day we use half of the field and the other day we use the other half, this helps in terms of maintaining the fields. We believe it is everyone’s duty to take good care of these fields,” alluded Brito.
Brito also highlighted that in order to maintain the standards the main pitches must not be used for training. He gave an example of Chelsea’s home ground Stamford Bridge where the team uses the field for training only four or five times per season.
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