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Becoming sports giant possible with fine plans
2007-10-27 09:24:05
By Editor
One of our columnists recently recommended ways to uplift the standard of club-level soccer in the country, one being that clubs should start thinking and planning beyond the national or sub-regional level.
We find this a hugely relevant and timely proposition whose implementation should see Tanzania make giant strides in sports.
The recommendation well worth following up with concrete strategies aimed at putting in place a springboard from which to launch more meaningful participation in international sport.
The columnist is a highly quotable authority on sports who has previously served as chief coach at a number of Premier League soccer clubs and now lectures at one of our universities.
It would be doing him and the nation great injustice for anyone to ignore the advice of such an expert.
Much like everywhere else in the world, our country has had mixed fortunes in the world of sport. There have been times when some of our sons and daughters have shot us into international fame. But there also have been times when we have performed terribly poorly.
However, as they say, winning, losing and anything in between are all part of the show and nothing comes as an entirely strange development.
Of course, that does not mean that we should be complacent or unmoved regardless of the achievements or blunders we make. And this is the gist of our columnist’s remarks.
Tanzania has had competitive soccer at club and other levels for decades.
There have been years or periods when we were matchless in quality in this part of the world, before withering – to rise from the ashes at some later stage and then relapse into mediocrity once again.
What we need to do, to misquote a legendary African writer, is to ask ourselves where the rain began to beat us and not where we started getting wet – not where we collapsed but where we stumbled in the first place.
We have had decades of arch-rivalry involving big-name soccer clubs like Dar es Salaam’s Young Africans (Yanga) and Simba. Some regions and districts have run as powerhouses contributing a generous number of skilful players to the national soccer team – but only briefly.
After all these years of virtual experimentation with our human and other resources, why don’t we buy the columnist’s recommendation and cast a fresh and more critical glance at our situation and plan for bigger goals?
For instance, why should we continue to pretend that the most we need or deserve is amateur soccer when most of us are professional except in name?
It is no longer enough for us to rejoice just because ‘our’ Simba has crushed ‘their’ Yanga and vice versa or for our players to think they have reached their heydays just because they are paid some form of monthly wage.
We must look around more seriously and creatively for clues on how to make an impression in international sport – and then move into strategic implementation. The world is moving on; we too must.
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