Football Development Needs a Reboot!

Congratulations to the Asian Football Confederation Countries, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran, all qualifying for the FIFA World Cup? Final Tournament in Qatar. Qatar automatically qualify as host and Australia will play the UAE in a playoff on June 7th to see who will play the 5th place South American Country and advance to the Final Tournament.?

For the past few decades it's been the same serial repeat winners in the AFC that qualify for FIFA World Cup? Tournaments. Out of the 47 Member Associations which make up the AFC, it comes down to only a small group of AFC members which make it to the world's biggest stage.

Here in East Asia, Japan and Korea have a lock on qualifying. Their Elite Training is no better than anyone else's but they have armies of Kids that are technically skilled. This is more about culture than it is about quality of coaching. They both have cultures in place which are conducive to developing players. Roy Keane said it best when talking about Ball skills; "Skill was and never will be the result of coaching, it's a love affair between child and ball." Neymar's father also had some insightful thoughts; Kids don't fall in love with Football in Brazil, they fall in love with the Ball, first.

Of interest, Japan has never employed a foreign Technical Director and their entire Technical Staff along with their Youth Coaches are exclusively Japanese. Korea is quite similar in its makeup. There is a focus on Technical development from the earliest ages which makes the difference. The reality is, since the 1990's no country in AFC has qualified for a FIFA World Cup? Tournament without first qualifying for either or both the FIFA U17 World Cup? and or the FIFA U20 World Cup? Tournaments. That is your path to the big tournament. So the investment should reflect what the goal should be, but it does not. We still see most Asian countries investing into failed models for development. They believe it’s all about more coaches, better coaches education, importing foreign expert’s to hold their Hand (most FA’s employ foreign Technical Directors and Head Coaches), adopting European curriculums, and building more multi-million dollar Facilities. All of these might be important, however, this doesn’t create the giant leap forward most are seeking. If it did, we would have seen a significant change these past several World Cup cycles here in Asia, but we have not. It's the same serial repeat winners that advance. Many believe they are just one coach away from qualifying for a for a FIFA World Cup? Tournament, that strategy has failed. Fortunately for these weaker AFC countries, help is on the way. FIFA? will expand their Tournament in 2026 from 32 Countries to 48.?Inevitably, we will start to see some lopsided results from the gap between the worlds best and the developing nations that will squeak in because of the new format expansion.

This brings me to one of my favorite wiseman stories!

“A giant engine in a factory failed and despite speaking with various ‘experts’ none were able to show the owners how they could solve the problem.

Eventually they brought in an old man who had many years’ experience fixing engines. After inspecting the huge engine for a minute or two, the old man pulled a hammer out of his tool bag. He gently tapped on the engine whereupon it immediately started working.

A week later the owners of the business received an invoice from the old man for $10,000. Flabbergasted, they wrote to the old man asking him to send through a breakdown of the invoice. The man replied:

Tapping with a hammer: $2.00

Knowing where to tap: $9,998.00

The moral of the story is that, whilst effort is important, having the experience to know where to put that effort makes all the difference.”

Today, I’m that old man telling you where to hit the hammer!

If I were in a position of influence in any of these countries seeking to qualify for a FIFA World Cup? Tournament, I would focus on the Entry Level by creating a pool of little kids that were skilled at Ball Mastery first and foremost. I would advise countries to develop Kids that fall in love with the Ball first, way before they even know what organized football is about. These countries need to place the focus on individual technical development first so that kids are set up for success, which means, better retention rates. Once your country has closed the gap between the very best and the least developed, then, and only then, they can take advantage of this obsession countries have with Elite Training. Currently, most countries youth players are just not good enough to benefit from these Elite structures countries are putting in place. Parents are key to ensuring the trajectory for their kids is set in a positive direction by understanding what development looks like. Focus on Culture first, which means the attention focused on developing knowledgeable Parents who understand the importance of Ball Mastery. You can hire and fire the best Technical Directors and Foreign Coaches in the world, but you can't hire and fire parents. You’re stuck with them. They are key and you'd better start understanding this if you want Asia to develop into a strong Football Region.

As a good friend of mine who has worked at AFC and UEFA posted recently on twitter, when replying to my post that the Entry level is more important than the Elite level, he posted this: "All across the world FA's put most of their resources into the Men's National Team because the Men's National Team performance is how the FA Leadership's performance is judged. Grassroots takes years to see the Return on Investment so there is no immediate incentive to invest." We need to change the way we think here in Asia if we are to ever lift that World Cup Trophy in the future! We need to close the enormous gap between Asia's best and Asia's least developed countries in order to preform better on the World Stage! Unfortunately, every World Cup Tournament Asia does the poorest compared to the rest of FIFA's Member Associations. Considering Asia has over 300 million children under the age of 6yrs old residing in the AFC region, it's time to wake-up and understand where the focus needs to be. Let's start thinking differently!

Football Starts at Home!