Scribes Should Not Overrate Players

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

30 April 2011

opinion

The registration period for the 2011/12 Vodacom Premier league teams is on and a lot of speculations are rife as to which player is crossing to the other club. Once the would-be players for the respective clubs are known or about to be known, for most part, in my opinion, the players ability are overrated. This is what has prompted me to put forward this message to sports journalists, and to be specific, ‘football’ journalists.

I have on several occasions differed with many journalists on how they report certain matches, particularly when they cover both a match and make their own analysis.It should be borne in mind by the journalists that serious coaches rely on the evaluation made by journalists after the match, this is because since most clubs technical team members were not properly appointed and the assistant to the coach endorsed by the head coach, there is little they will advise the head coach.

The club leaders may use different approaches in signing new players, for instance: the respective club coach scouting players himself from within or outside Tanzania; the head coach and the technical bench scouting for potential players and letting them get tested upon arrival at the clubs and this is especially so for players whose ability has not been proven beyond doubt. It is this second group which is quite often confusing the clubs technical benches.

When journalists report on the performance of these new players during this testing period, these are the common sentences you often read: Mazoezi ya Yanga/Simba usipime (literally translated as, ‘the training sessions by Yanga/Simba are unimaginable/are very impressive’; a certain player who is about to be signed is far better than a regular clubs player.

Such comments raise an eyebrow to any technical bench by starting to disregard previous club players despite their contribution to the club performance. I can recall such statements when Yanga signed a palyer called Kabongo Honore who journalists had it that he is more slippery than Mrisho Ngassa and that Ngassa needs to make some extra efforts to regain his number.

Such news made me look for that opportunity to see this new wonder boy who was about to sideline Ngassa. I was lucky to see this very same player in a league match when Yanga played Mtibwa Sugar in Morogoro. My own assessment of this player after the match was as follows: a lot of local players in the first division local clubs were far better compared to Honore.

I told the local journalists who were covering the match that the player did not deserve to be recruited as a professional player and worse enough, being highly paid. My words were later proved right because he never made any significant contribution to the club.

In view of the above, sports journalists should not be reporters, but should have the technical bits of football coaching.This is possible by attending a preliminary coaching course and for those who are more serious should attend intermediate courses.

It is through such training that our sports journalists can immensely help analyses our head coaches and technical benches by giving the correct analyses and refraining from being unofficial press secretaries of the clubs. They can as well be invited to make commentaries in regional or continental competitions and in sports channels. Yes sports journalists, let us do it right and help raise Tanzania’s football standards.

Dr Msolla is the former Premier League and national soccer team coach.

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