Editor's Blog - Ted Dumitru
Ted Dumitru
Every now and then when a member of the South African soccer fraternity writes in and make a point, and we feel it's important for South African football, we hand over the 'Editor's Column' to them to get their point across. With the pending announcement of a new SAFA technical director as well as a new head coach, we decided that this piece written by Ted Dumitru is of particular relevance. Over to you Ted… Evidence That Cannot Be Ignored The answers to the current saga concerning the appointment of a new national coach and technical director can be found in the conclusions of "A New Head Coach is No Longer the Solution in High Performance Football", an interesting study by Wayne Goldsmith, an internationally acclaimed sports researcher. It is impossible, according to the study, to avoid failure if national coaches and technicians aren't integrated exponents of the national football culture, long-term strategy on improving a specific playing philosophy and high performance objectives. Wayne states that, "In the past, the culture of the national team was very much that which was created by and persuaded by the head coach – the head coach was 'the team'. Now players own the culture of the team. The fans own it. The media owns it. The nation owns it. Everyone has a piece of the ownership of the football culture". In the complexity of high performance football, culture, traditions and language, among other aspects, constitute a determinant dimension. Every country that has won the World Cup would attest to that. The two leading pre-conditions that ultimately decide the performance of the national team and its coach refer to (1) the national football philosophy and its game identity and (2) the quality of players available. The recognition and application of a national football philosophy (the "constitution" on how the game should be played in a respective country) that is unitarily recognized and applied at youth, professional and national teams serves as the main pillar of high performance. In the example of the current German success, the philosophy was updated and reinforced by contributions from their experts, coaches, players, media and the public before the 10-year national team programme was launched. At that time, there was a large effort to improve the old German football identity by adding more conceptual attributes and the result is what we see today – Germany winning the World Cup. The second high performance constituent is the pool of quality players, developed and prepared in strict accordance with the national philosophy and distinct playing identity. Here the natural and developed attributes of players serve as the strength of the national team. Certainly, modern trends in football as well as physical and technical limitations of players need to be considered in defining the style and organizational identity. These two fundamental pillars of high performance in international football cannot, under any circumstances, be ignored. Any attempt to succeed done outside this pre-requisite, as demonstrated by countless examples, is doomed to fail. In the same context, the role and responsibilities of a technical director include, among other duties, the key authority to ensure the unconditional application of football philosophy in the development of players, competitive ranks and national teams. In both positions (that of the national coach and technical director), the option of hiring individuals of foreign nationalities should be dismissed. It is completely incompatible with the set of conditions and demands imposed by the principle of players and their coaches sharing similar backgrounds on cultural, traditional and football traits and mentality, which is an imperative in modern high performance sport. In 1998 and 2010 FIFA presented convincing evidence that successful nations benefit from "qualified native coaches who know how to adapt inborn qualities such as temperament, constitution, improvisation to the elements of technique, tactics and fitness." It is indeed astounding that the technical heads and the technical committee at SAFA have not shown any recognition and respect for such vital principles in their effort to address critical challenges faced by the national teams. It is even more so when less knowledgeable, ordinary South African football fans have already identified the causes and have provided relevant answers to the problem. Ted Dumitru
