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.

The four stages of skill acquisition.

A skill is a learned ability. Its something you need to execute a task.

Learning any skill is easy but mastering a skill takes time, commitment and discipline.

Mastering a skill is what sets you apart from ordinary people.

It’s important for footballers to master football skills until they can be performed with quality and spontaneously.

It’s believed that it takes 10,000 hours of DELIBERATE practice before the age of 20 to master a skill, during that time, you the will have to go through the following stages;

Unskilled, Unconscious; In this stage of skill acquisition, you have no idea about the skill and how its executed.

It’s safe to say that you are ignorant about it. If you do it then chances are that it’s done by mistake and can’t be sustained.

Before teaching players the steps of how to pass the ball, most of them will play football and perform the skill.

The passing is poor quality and players are unconscious of the right steps required to execute a proper pass.

Unskilled, Conscious; This’ the second stage of skill acquisition.

Now we assume players have been taught how to pass the ball.

Players will have classroom lessons and gain consciousness of the steps required to pass the ball like; making eye contact with the recipient, non-kicking foot standing beside the ball, pointing where you intend to pass, following through with the foot that strikes the ball and the other steps required when passing the ball.

In this stage of skill acquisition, you will know what is required to perform a skill but won’t be skilled to pull it off because you haven’t yet practiced enough.

In some cases, the skill is performed but under little or no pressure at all.

Expect a lot of mistakes in this stage

Skilled, Conscious; This’ the third stage of skill acquisition. In this stage you know how to execute the skill, you know what it takes to pull it off and that is what mainly preoccupies your mind.

During practice, you get static every time you miss a step or whenever you make a mistake you instantly recognize why/how you made the mistake.

You are conscious. The brain knows what you need to do but the body/muscles are yet to synchronize with messages from the brain.

This stage of skill acquisition requires a lot of positive feedback from coaches and peers.

Skilled, Unconscious; This’ the last stage of skill acquisition. In this stage, you can execute a skill like passing the ball, you do it so well to a point that you don’t have to think (unconscious) about the steps required.

At this stage every step in skill execution is spontaneous.

Eye contact before passing the ball is now shorter, the non-kicking foot easily gets besides the ball in the required distance, the non-kicking foot points very well while passing the ball.

At this stage, mistakes are treated as a one-off but with disappointment in yourself.

Most footballers don’t get to the last stage of skill acquisition mainly because of poor coaching standards.

Young footballers should be taught skills in a no-pressure environment to give a high chance of success.

Pressure can always be increased when a player has achieved a certain level of success.

Developing the Uganda Premier League.

Uganda Premier League (UPL) has been developing with every passing year since Bernard Bainamani took over as C.E.O. Every other season shows improvements.

This particular season 2017-18 has been better in terms of competitiveness. For the first time in a very long time, you find fans debating which team will be relegated and who will be champions. However, it will be a very huge mistake for UPL and its stakeholders to think of this competitiveness as an indicator for a developing league.

UPL’s competitiveness can mainly be attributed to the Federation of Uganda Football Associations’ (FUFA) move to introduce prize money and starting a top 8 tournament that will have prize money too, you can consider that as double prize money.

UPL has lots of challenges like; matches not kicking off on time, match reports not being accurate, fan violence not being checked, inconsistent officiation not being investigated, poor quality playing surfaces, players and coaches not understanding the rules, regulations and laws of the game, lack of ambulances at playing grounds, fixture congestion, league not starting on scheduled time, having unauthorized personnel within the perimeter fence during matches and on the pitch after league matches, league licensing requirements not being followed promptly, to mention but a few.

It’s important to note that although most of these challenges are societal problems that can’t be solved in a very short time, they are some of the minor details that are required to develop a league into a professional brand.

Development has no short cuts, requires ruthlessness too

For UPL to develop at a normal rate, all the stakeholders involved in Ugandan football will have to agree that their capacity is still very low. Stakeholders are; highly qualified coaches of different specialties, sports medicine personnel, match day officials, football administrators, media, players and fans. Having fewer qualified stakeholders running the game of football at the highest level like UPL should call for a reduction in the number of top-flight teams from 16 teams to 10 or 12 teams until we grow the football capacity in terms of quality and quantity of stakeholders.

UPL having twelve teams from sixteen teams would mean having less required but the best of officials, coaches, players, administrators, and media. It would be easier for the fans too but most importantly it would mean more sponsorship money for the fewer clubs to share.

You will never find a developed society that is lenient on certain aspects.

FUFA as the supervisors of league football in Uganda needs to be very ruthless on certain aspects. Club licensing requirements should be much more detailed and have acceptable standards set. Example; what are the playing field measurement dimensions accepted for a pitch to be used in UPL? How does a pitch qualify to be of UPL standards? In this case, I am mentioning pitch but not stadium because a stadium is something that requires a lot of finances that we can’t yet get to but having a quality playing pitch can’t be beyond a UPL club’s current finances.

Every society should have unique ways of solving its own problems. UPL needs creativity

Ugandan football especially UPL is a unique society in its own right, developing will happen when the leaders task the stakeholders involved to document the problems encountered then start coming up with creative ways to solve those problems.

When you mention about UPL having ten or twelve teams, the first response you get is, “those are few clubs in the league, and a professional should play an average of 40 matches in a season”. With our copy and paste syndrome, we forget that a UPL player will be involved in more tournaments like; Clan football, the drum tournament, Uganda Cup, CHAN, underage tournaments for the national team and Super 8 coming up. We forget that we keep exposing them to poor playing surfaces that make it easier for them to get injured.

A 10 team league can creatively have 27 match days, it can also have 34 match days. A twelve team league can have 27 or 32 league matchdays and be very competitive too yet using fewer resources as we work towards growing the capacity of football stakeholders.

The business question to answer would be how UPL teams would be reduced from 16 to 10 or 12 teams which would call for the kind of ruthlessness required to develop. As we head into the 2018-19 season, UPL and FUFA would have to agree on what they would want a UPL club to have, that is to say, set the licensing requirements and standards.

For instance; each club should have a quality playing surface (define what quality is for a UPL playing surface), club operating structures, standard training facilities, set criteria for a number of qualified and specialized coaches and officials, set suspended offense limits e.t.c. FUFA and UPL would then set a timeframe of two seasons and inform clubs that for the 2020-21 season, clubs would have to apply for a license to play in the UPL.

The clubs that will have met the required criteria will play. This should be open to all clubs in the country then watch how clubs out compete themselves to ensure that licensing requirements are met.

For the moment, with our current football capacity, 16 clubs in UPL is a crowd that can’t be efficiently managed to sustain the required rate of football development.

Solidarity payment contribution: FUFA should use it to develop football in Uganda.

Under FIFA regulations on the status and transfer of players, if a professional footballer transfers to another club during the course of a contract, 5% of any transfer fee, not including training compensation paid to his former club, shall be deducted from the total amount of the transfer fee and distributed by the new club as a solidarity contribution to the club(s) involved in training and education the player over the years.

The Solidarity Payment Contribution podcast.

This solidarity contribution reflects the number of years the player was registered with the relevant club(s) between the seasons of the 12th and 23rd birthdays, as follows:

Season of birthday	% of compensation	% of total transfer fee
12th	5%	0.25%
13th	5%	0.25%
14th	5%	0.25%
15th	5%	0.25%
16th	10%	0.50%
17th	10%	0.50%
18th	10%	0.50%
19th	10%	0.50%
20th	10%	0.50%
21st	10%	0.50%
22nd	10%	0.50%
23rd	10%	0.50%
Total	100%	5%

The above table is a breakdown of solidarity payment contribution.

According to my financial expert Andrew Muhimbise, passive income is money earned without the direct involvement of the income earner.

Passive income does not mean earning money by doing nothing.

It means generating revenue without having to exchange time for it (beyond the initial time invested in creating a passive income stream).

For instance, owning real estate or company shares, you actually don’t have to physically be there to earn but, to earn passive income, you need an initial effort.

Paul Pogba’s move from Juventus to Manchester United for £89,300,000 helped Le Havre AC to earn £893,000 as passive income.

He joined the club aged 12 for four years. Since they contributed to his development and education as a football player, they earned passive income for their efforts.

Racqui San Isidro who ply their trade in Spain’s fifth division were saved from running out of football business by the solidarity mechanism payment.

Pedro’s £27,000,000 transfer from Barcelona to Chelsea ensured that they earned a lifesaving £320,000 which not only helped them stay in football but ensured they invested the money to increase income to help run the club.

The same cannot be said of football clubs in Uganda.

FUFA SHOULD IMPLEMENT A DOMESTIC SOLIDARITY MECHANISM PAYMENT SYSTEM THAT DEVELOPS UGANDAN FOOTBALL

The solidarity mechanism payment system only applies to international transfers (involves moving from one federation to another federation), Federation Of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) can implement a domestic version that would STRICTLY apply to DOMESTIC transfers.

In the past years we have seen how Ibrahim Sekagya’s transfer from Arsenal de Serandi to Red Bull Salzburg caused more fist fights than celebrations, with the Austrian club required to pay 5% of the transfer fee, all of Sekagya’s former teams were demanding for payment, reason: they heard that there was payment but, in reality they didn’t know which club qualified for payment.

With a domestic solidarity mechanism payment,

Clubs will be organized and maintain records because they will expect payment from transfers. Handling “small” transfer fees will help prepare clubs for the huge amounts and avoid the issue of Victor Wanyama’s transfer from Celtic to Southampton.
Clubs will work very hard to train and maintain quality players because they will know that it pays to train a “Pogba”. At the moment, we have young players moving every transfer window, the lack of stability denies players a chance to get proper football education and to develop talent.
Clubs will appreciate the value of having full-time standard academies and attaching value to talented footballers. With more transfers and funds being paid to clubs, more money will get to grassroots which helps clubs acquire equipment.
Clubs will work very hard to stay in business by adopting modern business methods. Having the hope that there’s payment because of a good product on the market would keep any club afloat.
The problem of age cheating will be solved because clubs would need to register players from the age of twelve and keep tracking them to avoid missing out on a huge payday.

The most expensive Ugandan footballer has got to be Farouk Miya after Standard Liege paid $400,000 to Vipers.

On applying the solidarity mechanism payment formula, Standard Liege should be paying Friends Of Football (FOF) about $6,000.

Do they have the paperwork to prove he was groomed at their academy?

Do they have the knowledge that they are due $6,000 from Standard Liege?

Why is it that a law that was introduced to develop football at grass root level is not serving its intended purpose?

The biggest move of the 2016-17 Ugandan transfer window was of Musa Esenu joining Vipers SC from Soana FC for a reported 25,000,000 Uganda Shillings.

The 21-year-old striker was groomed by Future Stars in Soroti.

Below is an illustration of how a domestically applied solidarity mechanism payment would benefit Future Stars.

Player	Musa Esenu
Registering Club	Vipers SC
Former Club	Soana		D.O.B

Instalment	25,000,000		Currency	UGX

95% due to Selling Club	23,750,000
Solidarity	1,250,000
Season of Birthday	Club	% due	Amount
Season of 12th Birthday	Future Stars	5.00%	62,500
Season of 13th Birthday	Future Stars	5.00%	62,500
Season of 14th Birthday	Future Stars	5.00%	62,500
Season of 15th Birthday	Future Stars	5.00%	62,500
Season of 16th Birthday	Future Stars	10.00%	125,000
Season of 17th Birthday	Future Stars	10.00%	125,000
Season of 18th Birthday	Future Stars	10.00%	125,000
Season of 19th Birthday	Future Stars	10.00%	125,000
Season of 20th Birthday	Soana	10.00%	125,000
Season of 21st Birthday	N/A	10.00%	125,000
Season of 22nd Birthday	N/A	10.00%	125,000
Season of 23rd Birthday	N/A	10.00%	125,000
		TOTAL	1,250,000

As illustrated above, Future Stars would pocket 750,000 Uganda shillings of passive income from Esenu’s move for their initial effort in grooming him. It sounds like very little money but it’s enough to buy basic football equipment to keep them running.

It would prepare Future Stars to receive bigger amounts should Esenu move from Vipers for a higher transfer fee and most importantly, its better than nothing at all.

The ball is in FUFA’s half to be creative and come up with a domestic solidarity mechanism payment system to help clubs to develop through being able to get funds to the grass root structures that groom football players.

Amending domestic player transfer regulations would do the trick.

Ben Mwesigwa

Developing Football in Uganda

Category Archives: My Thoughts