Author Archives: Ben Mwesigwa

Laws of the game: Worry for Ugandan football.

Football has 17 laws of the game but referees are allowed to add an unwritten 18th law that requires them to use common sense especially in grassroots football.

Law 1 covers the field of play
Law 2 covers the ball
Law 3 covers the players
Law 4 covers the players’ equipment
Law 5 covers the referee
Law 6 covers the other match officials
Law 7 covers the duration of the match
Law 8 covers the start and restart of play
Law 9 covers the ball in and out of play
Law 10 covers determining the outcome of the match
Law 11 covers offside
Law 12 covers fouls and misconduct
Law 13 covers free kicks
Law 14 covers the penalty kick
Law 15 covers the throw-in
Law 16 covers the goal kick
Law 17 covers the corner kick

The Laws of the game: Worry for Ugandan Football Podcast.

These laws are formulated and amended by the International Football Association Board (IFAB).

They usually do this after research from major tournaments.

If you look at the history of law changes, they originate from something observed at a major FIFA tournament.

One of the biggest law changes came in 1992 when goalkeepers were no longer allowed to handle a ball passed intentionally by a teammate using the foot. They can handle the ball if it’s passed by a teammate using any body part from the knee and above.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

The football clubs that plan player development (not in Uganda) worked out how a goalkeeper would be more involved in the game.

They started training young goalkeepers how to be comfortable with the ball at their feet because, before that, goalkeepers mainly used their hands and only used their feet to kick.

They embraced the new change and greatly worked on goalkeepers being able to use their feet to receive the ball, pass the ball short, medium or long and to dribble.

Ball-playing goalkeepers are now common but not all of them, some of the goalkeepers in clubs that weren’t playing the ball out from the back didn’t work on goalkeepers having neat footwork to move the ball.

Those goal keepers are in their 30’s and about to retire.

Football coaches researched that a team stands a greater chance of keeping and recycling possession if the goalkeeper can be involved in play or play out from the back as it’s known these days.

Of course, it has risks (Ugandans hate risks) because sometimes a back pass is under-hit or the goalkeeper messes up while passing the ball which usually results in an attempt on goal.

Playing out from the back was popularized by Pep Guardiola at FC Barcelona between 2008-2012.

That tactic has since spread out to the rest of the world but not in Uganda because we can’t apply it properly.

Every time there’s a major FIFA tournament, a technical study group (TSG) is formulated by FIFA to analyze new trends in football.

Since the 2010 FIFA World cup, the number of passes made by a goalkeeper in open play have increased greatly to a point that right from the U17 FIFA world cup (both men and women), goalkeepers are almost averaging 30 passes made per game.

WHAT’S THE WORRY FOR FOOTBALL IN UGANDA?

When football scouts are sent to watch potential signings, they have a profile for each position.

Goalkeepers in the modern era MUST be comfortable with the ball at their feet especially in open play.

Worry for goalkeepers in Uganda hoping to be scouted.

Watch a game in Uganda at any level, you’ll struggle to find a team that is comfortable building up the ball from the back.

Most goalkeepers aren’t comfortable with the ball at their feet in open play. Ugandans hate risks (especially in football) it’s understandable with competitive football that relies on results but development tournaments are filled with coaches and players scared of building up from the back just in case they make a mistake.

At the 2019 AFCON U-17 tournament, Uganda Cubs (men’s U-17 national team) struggled to build up from the back which resulted in possession being sacrificed easily on many occasions.

An underage team not having players comfortable with building up from the back is a sign that work has to be done in the junior league because that’s where the majority of coaching happens.

The other worry is that because most goalkeepers struggle with the ball at their feet in open play, it affects the coach’s ability to use certain tactics.

As Uganda cubs desperately needed one extra goal to beat Nigeria and qualify for the 2019 FIFA U-17 world cup.

Uganda cubs had to rely on taking long goal kicks that resulted in a frequent loss of possession.

More worries for Ugandan football is that IFAB has amended football laws again.

Starting with the 2019-20 season, goal keepers will be allowed to pass the ball to a player inside the penalty area when restarting play for a goal kick.

As Ugandan football struggles to deal with a law amended 27 years ago, here comes a sliding tackle.

For us to overcome the worry that is caused by amending the football laws of the game;

We need to redefine the meaning of success in under age football.

Is it winning matches and tournaments at all costs or players improving to become better than they were yesterday?

We need to learn how to teach football in the proper way by accepting that mistakes are part of learning.

It’s through this that we shall adopt a no fear of failure approach in football.

This will enable us to develop players that are capable of handling the demands of modern football that include the ability to easily adapt to amendments in the laws of the game.

Disclaimer: The writer doesn’t have anything against taking long kicks or goal kicks in football.

Standards for developing Ugandan football.

In March 2019 Bank of Africa (BOA) published a job advert for sales positions.

One of the MUST have requirements for applicants, was having scored a minimum of a credit 3 in English and Mathematics in Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE).

On 30th April 2019, Bank of Uganda (BOU) published a job advert, MUST have for the BOU job advert was a first-class degree or second upper degree.

In those two examples, the two banks SET A MINIMUM STANDARD for applicants, whether someone with lower grades can do a better job or not, that’s an entirely different debate.

When Bolton Wanderers gained promotion to the English Premier League (EPL) for the 2001-02 season, they were outright relegation candidates.

By the end of the season, Bolton had survived relegation. Sam Allardyce who coached Bolton at that time had researched about opposition teams in EPL.

In his assessment, playing against opponents like Manchester United and Arsenal (the title contenders in that era) takes them less than 11 seconds to get in front of your goalkeeper when they (Man Utd and Arsenal) are defending a corner kick.

He made sure that during the preseason, players were fit enough to handle the demands of being able to sprint the entire length of a pitch in less than 11 seconds.

The demands to play in EPL are much more than just sprinting but in that case, a STANDARD had been set to compete in EPL.

Tottenham Hotspurs has recently built a new stadium to replace White Hart Lane.

One of the reasons for moving was to meet UEFA and EPL standards for having a pitch (playing surface) that measures the 105m length and 68m in width, of course, they had more reasons higher in priority for redeveloping the stadium but whichever reason, it still comes down to the need to meet set STANDARDS.

FC Barcelona has plans to redevelop Camp Nuo because, in its current state, Camp Nuo can’t match the STANDARDS set by Barcelona’s rivals in terms of matchday revenue and experience.

In the football-related examples from Bolton Wanders, Tottenham and Barcelona, the clear observation is the need to meet set standards led to development.

WHAT ARE THE STANDARDS IN UGANDAN FOOTBALL?

At the start of the 2018-19 Uganda Premier League (UPL) season, clubs were required to have green pitches, it’s common sense to have a green pitch (standard) for a football match because it helps to have good football, reduces injuries and makes it easier to officiate among many other reasons.

Paidha Black Angels (PBA) a club based in Zombo, West Nile couldn’t have their pitch ready. They decided to play home matches 90 kilo meters away in Arua.

The cost of transporting, feeding and accommodating players and club officials from Zombo to Arua can match the cost of making a football pitch green (at least for Ugandan football standards).

PBA was allowed to play in the league sharing a stadium with Onduparaka, by the time they returned to play (not yet a green pitch) in Zombo for the start of UPL second round, PBA was facing relegation and the pitch in Arua wasn’t green anymore.

In this scenario, a standard was set but wasn’t enforced which led to reduced standards.

PBA was allowed to play without a pitch then Onduparaka used a bad pitch for the entire second round of the 2018-19 UPL season.

How will pitches develop yet no team is pushed to meet set standards?

Worse case is that accommodating PBA in the league, led to reduced standards.

What was supposed (imagining that other teams had green pitches) to be one bad pitch, created two bad pitches.

Hitting two birds (knocking out standards) with one stone.

Developing has take it or leave it conditions. If you don’t have the requirements for applying at BOU and BOA, don’t bother applying.

If Tottenham and FC Barcelona don’t redevelop their respective stadiums, then match day revenue will not increase (develop).

Ugandan Football’s challenge is that standards have been set but can’t be enforced because of the leniency to accommodate everyone. In the PBA case, a team that couldn’t meet UPL standards got welcomed with a hug.

WHAT’S THE EFFECT?

What message do BOU and BOA send out to the general public when they stick to their recruitment standards? A U.C.E candidate in 2019 will know what’s at stake should they ever wish to work at BOA and BOU in the future.

A team intending to compete in EPL will know what it takes to survive in EPL. Tottenham and FC Barcelona were able to accept their current situation then do something about it, this has led to more teams having new stadiums in Europe.

The need to meet standards helps to push development. If PBA had been kicked out of UPL for not having a green pitch, what message would be sent out to teams gaining promotion?

If PBA had worked on making the pitch green ahead of the second round. How many green pitches would be in the second tier league next season?

How easy would it be to enforce the use of green pitches in the second tier league when three relegated teams are dropping to that league with green pitches?

I don’t know about FUFA and UPL having the guts to stick to set standards but I am sure that as long as FUFA and UPL keep being lenient on who meets set standards, developing football in Uganda will continue being a myth.

In this article, I only used an example of failing to be strict with STANDARDS set for a playing pitch in UPL. That is about 1% of Ugandan football.

Disclaimer: The writer doesn’t have anything against PBA. The example was used in good faith.

Bio banding would help Ugandan footballers.

Bio banding is grouping young players of the same maturation and growth attributes rather than grouping them according to chronological age like using U15, U17.

On average, children start puberty aged 12. During puberty, they go through a growth spurt stage but all this happens at different times for each individual depending on factors that range from quality of nutrition, gender, genes, physical activities e.t.c it’s possible to find two 14-year-olds with very contrasting maturation and growth attributes like height.

POPULARISING BIO BANDING IN FOOTBALL
Bio banding is thought to have been popularized by the Southampton FC academy in England.

Oxlade-Chamberlain was part of Southampton’s U14’s and was struggling to keep up with his peers on the field because his slow growth rate made it easy for him to easily get knocked off the ball.

The club thought of releasing him but James Bunce the head of athletic performance decided to keep him at the club.

James Bunce’s observation was that Oxlade-Chamberlain was very good at using the ball but playing with peers that were bigger, stronger and faster became harder for him which resulted in lower confidence and poor performance.

The Ox as he is known was kept in the U-14’s instead of promoting him to the U16’s to continue his football development in an environment that was suitable for him growth-wise.

By the age of 16, he had gone through his own growth spurt and developed into perhaps the best player of his age category in the whole of England.

The Ox made his senior debut for Southampton at the aged 16 and 199 days. Arsenal paid Southampton 15 million pounds for the then 17-year-old Oxlade-Chamberlain in 2011 then later got paid more when he joined Liverpool for 35 million pounds.

Bar injury, he is one of England’s most influential players at the moment.

BACK TO UGANDA

When the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) introduced the FUFA Juniors’ League (FJL) in the 2015-16 season.

It meant that young players were going to get competitive football to help them develop.

In the 2017-18 FJL (U18) season, I was coaching Maroons Junior Team when we decided to register Tony Opio.

He was making 16 years of age in October 2017 but was very small for his age with very good football potential.

During the season, we restricted him to playing 45 minutes per match so that he could enjoy the experience of playing in the league.

I was able to explain to him why I needed to protect him from playing a full match against opponents that were bigger than him because the frustration of not playing well would affect him negatively.

2018-19 FJL season was upgraded to U-19 although I wasn’t his coach anymore I kept following Tony.

He was still the same size and played some matches.

Tony will be making 18 years of age in October 2019 but FJL will return to U-17 for the 2019-20 season which means that Tony will be ineligible to play.

“For a player of his size, FUFA’s competitions committee should consider him playing with the U-17’s because he would fit in. It would help him to have more time on the pitch to develop his talent.”

I know FJL has age cheating challenges but in this case, Tony is already registered and known, Maroons JT also has a very good record of not having age cheats (at least when I coached them).

For a player that was almost considered for selection when the U-17 national team was assembling to start preparations for AFCON U-17 qualifiers, he deserves a bio banding experience to help him develop his talent.

Tony is one in a million of Ugandan players that are struggling with the slow growth rate.

If he’s already been registered in a previous season and there’s a reason to believe he can improve by playing with players of his current physical attributes, then perhaps bio banding would save some of the lost talents in Ugandan football.

Disclaimer: The writer has no disclaimers at the moment.

The technical director in Ugandan football.

The term technical director gets thrown around quite often in Ugandan football.

It’s usually a veteran coach, moving with the senior team of a club and in most cases gets involved in training sessions something I have always thought makes it one of the most misused job titles in Ugandan football.

Every football club has its own way of twisting the term technical director. Sporting director, director of football, head of football relations, director of football development e.t.c, are some of the different titles used.

WHAT’S THE ROLE OF A TECHNICAL DIRECTOR?

This’ a person in charge of defining technical development programs to prepare a club for football in the future.

He/She prepares a long term vision and develops a technical strategy that will improve the level of football in a club after a defined period (in football it has to be a number of years) however, this seemed to be done in the past.

Football in the modern era has three areas of technical, administration and business that need to be developed so that a club gets ready for football in the future and to be sustainable.

To avoid the technical director from being overworked with administrative and business areas of football, some clubs will employ a head of strategy and planning to help the technical director.

From the above break down, we can tell that a technical director’s role has more than a result that happens on the next match day.

We can also tell that it’s a job that requires planning for the future.


SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS, where is the club now?

A technical director should be able to analyze the football environment of the club.

This process requires extensive research and should be answered with honesty (oooohhh Uganda) even if it means having bitter facts without the need to impress superiors.

It’s important for the technical director to avoid the mistake of assuming he/she knows it all while conducting a situational analysis because information missed out at this stage will lead to mistakes.

Clubs in the Uganda Premier League (UPL) had a U-19 team playing in the FUFA Juniors’ League (FJL).

What’s the link between the U19 team and the senior team?

Are the players ready to compete in UPL?

A technical director answering those two questions might find the need to set up a B team that plays in the lowest competitive league to enable U-19 players to continue their development.

STRATEGY, where does the club want to be?

A strategy is a process of determining goals and developing plans to achieve them.

A technical director should be able to develop a long term (minimum of 4 years) strategy based on what was discovered during the situational analysis stage.

A GENUINE U-19 footballer in Uganda isn’t ready to compete in UPL for the 2019-20 season but the club would like to change that situation.

A technical director would then strategize how to set up grassroots (U-12), U-15, U-17, U-20 then U-23 to serve as the B team so that players can have a clear development pathway for the players to be ready in future.

IMPLEMENTATION, how does the club get there?

This’ the most difficult and long-lasting stage for a technical director and the club because it has a lot of changes and challenges that can hardly be foreseen with accuracy.

Basing on the example of setting up grassroots football at the club would be met with the following challenges; Grassroots football has to be broken down into different age categories because children aged 6-12 have different physical and mental features that affect how they learn.

The technical director would then come up with gender-mixed categories of U-8, U-10, and U-12.

They need to be trained three times a week by highly qualified coaches that have pedagogy abilities for handling children.

The recommended ratio of coaches: players is 1:5.

In that paragraph, you can already see the problems faced by a club in Uganda.

One of them is that during school time, it’s almost impossible to have players available, however, this requires a technical director with very good problem-solving skills, enthusiasm, and a positive attitude to avoid blaming or being comfortable with excuses (oooohhh Uganda).

MONITORING AND EVALUATION, Is the club getting there?

In this phase, a technical director ensures the progress of the club is known and measured against the set goals at all times.

Monitoring ensures the quality levels of activities organized respects the defined standard and that relevant feedback is received.

This helps to plan for the next cycle because feedback will show what went wrong and/or right.

Basing on the example of the club setting up grassroots football.

A technical director will set up a football learning syllabus for U-12 players so that at each stage (U-8, U-10, and U-12), players should be able to execute the fundamental skills required to compete in UPL or Women’s Elite League.

Every time the grassroots have a friendly, feedback will be based on the set goals.

It’s important to understand that in grassroots football, the number one aim is for players to have fun and enjoy returning to the training ground so that they can develop a genuine passion for football.

Winning matches or competing should never be used as the goal at that stage (oooohhh Uganda) all players should be treated as individuals.

Those four stages are a tiny fraction of what a technical director does. He/She should have a high level of education, a high level of coaching education and should have played football at any level.

Disclaimer: The writer has nothing against technical directors in Ugandan football.

The 10,000 hours’ myth in football practice.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outlier: The story of success, he states that, “it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to master a skill.” Gladwell’s statement is based on research done by Professor Anders Ericsson.

In Uganda, coaches and players have practised this theory but struggle to perform with consistency at a high level.

The 10,000 hours’ practice research was performed on a violinist but, playing a violin and football are very different activities.

Football is a multi-directional sport that requires a lot more than executing football skills to perform very well.

During a football match, football skills are executed under physical, tactical, and mental challenges concerning; the ball, the space, the teammate, the opponent, the state of play, and the area of the pitch.

These challenges differ according to the quality of opponents and teammates.

Quality opponents limit time while quality teammates demand urgency and accuracy.

For example; travelling with the ball is; dribbling and/or running with the ball.

Dribbling is moving with the ball while keeping it close to the foot and is usually applied after determining that a player needs to create space to move the ball, requires support or protect the ball from the opponent, however, this has to be in the area of the pitch that limits the risk of losing possession and the state of play.

“Practice makes permanent but proper practice makes perfect.”

10,000 hours of practising football skills will not count if the practice isn’t executed properly, not deliberate, and lacks the quality to be football-specific.

Football skills are poorly practiced in isolation without considering the physical, tactical, and mental demands that affect their application.

Practicing dribbling through markers might lead to players struggling to travel with the ball because, during a football match, travelling with the ball will require;

1. Physical demands like agility involve the flexibility of the ankle joint, footwork speed, balance, acceleration, deceleration, and body feints.

2. Tactical demands like deciding when to dribble or run with the ball.

3. Mental demands like the confidence to be aggressive with executing the skill and to avoid arrogance when the skill is executed properly.

The proper football-specific practice to perfect travelling with the ball should include the tactical, physical, and mental demands then progressing the practice to increase the challenge.

Ask the following questions;

What is the current ability of the player?

How can we measure progress?

How do we know that a skill has been mastered?

Do we challenge space and time during practice?

Does the practice place players in unfavourable conditions?

Having to use the weak foot?

There are creative ways that make football practice to have challenges that would enable players to master football skills that serve the purpose of football.

Depending on the stage of football development, it’s important to design deliberate football-specific practice sessions that challenge the player’s comfort zone and to emphasize competing against themselves.

That’s when it will be possible to realize the benefits of the 10,000 hours to perfection in football.