FOOTBALL clubs should heed to the advice by the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) not to use coaches as sacrificial lambs for poor performance.
Over the years the clubs have developed the disheartening culture of firing coaches for their teams’ poor results.
Coaches have been humiliated and thrown onto the streets as if they do not have any rights for the incompetence and indiscipline of individual players.
In fact coaching has become the most unpredictable job in Zambia, with the axe constantly looming over the necks of the trainers.
The advice could therefore not have come at a better time. We agree with FAZ vice-president Boniface Mwamelo’s statement that it is not right for administrators to use coaches as scapegoats when the club is not performing.
“This quick-fix type of management should end. Firing coaches whenever the team is losing is not right. Using coaches as scapegoats is not right. We need to see a new revolution in 2014. We need to see change in the way we manage teams,” we quoted Mr Mwamelo as saying on the main sports page of yesterday’s edition.
It is imperative for the clubs to heed to this advice because subjecting coaches to insecurity emanating from the fear of being fired affects their capacity to give their best.
No worker wants to be haunted by the possibility to be sacked at short notice.
It is strange that clubs have been quick to blame coaches every time their teams have failed to deliver.
Even the most incompetent and visionless clubs that have not provided the financial, logistical and mental motivation for the players need not have rushed to kick the coaches out.
This embarrassing treatment of the trainers should come to an end as FAZ has demanded.
We agree with Mr Mwamelo that the administration and technical team must always work together to ensure their teams’ high performance.
The planning should be done jointly, with the involvement of the players if possible.
This will reduce the temptation to point fingers at one another when things go wrong.
Dismissal of the coach should only come as a last resort, and must be done only when the coach has breached terms of the contract.
By firing the coach the administration is actually also admitting its own failure.
We are, therefore, proposing that any football club administration that will fire a coach on the basis of the team’s poor performance should also dissolve itself for incompetence.
This is because coaches are supervised by the club administration.
Coaches go to great lengths to prepare their players for matches.
They are, however, often let down by the players who deviate from the game plan.
The administrations should not also ignore the indiscipline of individual players, which affects their performance on the pitch.
It is not a secret that most Zambian football players spend most of their spare time drinking and chasing casual pleasure in bars and nightclubs.
Some of them have even been reported to have sneaked out of camp to go and indulge themselves with liquor.
When they fail to perform on the pitch the administrators are quick to hang the innocent coach.
Do they expect the coach to be on the pitch to execute the game plan as discussed in the dressing room?
For fairness’ sake the club administrations should also fire individual players identified to have directly contributed to their team’s performance.
Often such players have gotten away with their indiscipline.
What we are saying is that if the coach has to be crucified for the under-performance of the team so should be the players.
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