Their blood smell like money!

As long as our football is run like a pawn shop owner with a “take it or leave it” attitude – the future of our players, especially academically, is doomed.

TOUCHLINE thought that as a country we have moved from a dictatorship mentality, but I was wrong!

There was so much happening over the weekend with the players being forced to play despite them writing their final exams. TOUCHLINE still doesn’t understand the reason behind the rush for the league to start while players are in the middle of their final exams.

How so?

I don’t blame the league administrators for their decision to kick start the league programme in the middle of exams but TOUCHLINE points fingers to the clubs’ officials who insist on playing. Fact of the matter, it is not the league that suggested teams must play but those who don’t value education of these players.

TOUCHLINE found it very disturbing when clubs development coaches and officials demanded that the league  start regardless of players writing their final exams. This shows what kind of leadership we have in our football. They don’t care about the future of these players because not all of these youngsters are going to be successful professional players.

This is not an attack on anybody but a highlight on the importance of education in football because we all know that football is a short term career. We all know that not all these players will be successful professional footballers.

There must be balance between football and education because apart from being professional soccer players we also need educated football administrators who will be able to run our football in future because the likes of Dr Irvin Khoza, Danny Jordaan will not be around forever.

As development coaches and administrators’ education must be our top priority at this level to produce not only soccer players but also future football administrators. For example, at this level it is not only about football but to produce all rounded players who will be able to take care of themselves when their football career is over. Look at former great such as Mike Ntombela who wrote the book “After The Fans Have Stopped Cheering”. We want to produce  Ntombela’s in our football.

Like TOUCHLINE said previously, the parents are also invested to these youngsters to get education and become something in life apart from football. We can sit here and argue that playing is taking a break from studies, but the timing is wrong. We should never justify “nonsense” just because we want to satisfy our egos. There is no way we can compare the current crop of players with the current players.

For those who care to listen COVID-19 didn’t make things easy for these players as far as their studies are concerned. Remember, in some of the development teams, education is part of our culture to educate as much as we can on and off the field.

TOUCHLINE challenges those in power not to neglect these players’ education or studies just because there are tournament that are taking place in the community in the middle of final exams. There is no way we can be compared to these “hooligans” whose blood smell money. The problem with people in power is that they think they can just dictate terms for those who invested so much in the development of these players.

We must get rid of this “take it or leave it” attitude in our football because football is not about “I or me”, but we play as a team, win as a team and loose as a team. So, there is no “I” in the team especially in football. If we can’t be advised, then we are bound for disaster as a footballing nation.