It is said and believed that even those emerging club leaders are in fact followers of the two giant clubs, namely, Simba and Yanga. In that regard, these clubs need to approach football development in a more holistic and scientific way.
As one talks about football, regardless of any emerging new teams, the two giants will undoubtedly command a huge following.
It is said and believed that even those emerging club leaders are in fact followers of the two giant clubs, namely, Simba and Yanga. In that regard, these clubs need to approach football development in a more holistic and scientific way.
What we are currently seeing is that these clubs are making a lot of blunders when it comes to having proper institutions within their clubs. I am aware that they have club trustees and management, but they need to have more than that.
We also see that they have club elders who are said not be in the club constitutions. I strongly believe senior players for these clubs can play a key role in the following areas:
Technical backstopping
Having played for club and most of them for the national team for many years, they attained a lot of technical skills from fellow opposing team players and from a number of coaches who have trained them.
They can very well play a very important advisory role on both club technical bench and technical cum registration committee. They can very precisely know which positions need to be covered to maintain the rhythms of the team and identify players within and outside the country to fill in the gaps.
Take the role of developing juvenile players
Since a number of these senior club players have turned to be football coaches of the highest caliber (being national team coaches such as Mkwasa for Yanga and Kibaden for Simba), club leaders can assign these their juvenile teams.
Take the case of Manchester United; they used their senior players to recruit five young players from their reserve team to join their senior team. The players who were promoted were Giggs, Phil and Garry Nevile, Scholes and Becham.
When these joined the senior players like the legendary Erick Cantona (who was the captain), they made Manchester United change status from being just a premier league team to a world class team.
Assist the team in preparing a sound road map for clubs development
Having great exposure in football and some of them being senior football coaches, they can assist their respective clubs to put down a realistic road map for their clubs, which can involve investment in human and physical planning.
Be intermediaries in disputes
Senior players as they are, can jointly combine with club elders to form an intermediary when club leaderships are in dispute as we always notice.
Thus allowing club leaders to concentrate more on club development. As soon as club leaders are split, the players’ performance gets affected as we saw what happened to Simba in the just ended league where they finished fourth and Yanga three years ago when they were beaten 6-0 by Simba.
I believe these players can do that. Luckily both teams have very senior players who have played competitive football since the 1960s and are still active in football development. Why not utilise their expertise?
They are both highly respected by any of their former club players and possibly current club leaders. Give them a chance, they can assist developing clubs and football to the expected level.
Dr Msolla is a former Premier League and national soccer team coach
