Times Of Swaziland: GIVE DE JONGH A CHANCE,  SEILBEA TELLS COACHES

GIVE DE JONGH A CHANCE,  SEILBEA TELLS COACHES
================================================================================
 BY BHEKISISA MAGONGO on 30/03/2017 08:02:00


MBABANE – Veteran coach Fritz Seilbea has implored local coaches to give
newly-appointed Sihlangu mentor Pieter de Jongh a chance before criticising him.
He said it was the responsibility of the FA to hire an expatriate if that
particular person would improve the standard of the sport in the country. He
said local coaches could only watch him, learn from him if he proved to be
knowledgeable and only judge him thereafter.
Seilbea, in a three page letter, was responding to weekend reports attributed to
Swaziland Football Coaches Association (SFCA) Chairman Anthony Mdluli during the
Club Licensing meeting of PLS Board of Governors, that local coaches were not
getting the support that their foreign counterparts were receiving.
“I have seen cases where a local coach was given overwhelming support at
Sihlangu to the point whereby his removal sparked a nationwide reaction. To me
that is ultimate support for local coach,” Seilbea said.
He said even the current Sihlangu coach should be allowed to work, be assessed
and then judged later.
“When reputable expatriate coaches are hired to run our teams, local coaches
should then be hired to assist those expatriates so that they may gain the
necessary experience to enable them to coach premier league teams in the
future,” he said.
He said he was opposed to the current practice where local coaches would
graduate with a coaching licence and then want to coach a premier league team
without having acquired the needed experience to coach at that level.
He said the six senior coaches that are being said to be rotated by the elite
teams were not products of the FA licensing progammes but acquired their
knowledge and experience long before these programmes.
“When a young police recruit graduate he/she does not go straight to be a
station commander, but he has to rise through the ranks, serve under the
experienced officers. The same occurred with all the other professions. Why
should it change when it comes to coaching?” he asked.
FA Marketing and Communications Officer Muzi Radebe said the organisation cannot
comment on the issue because they were not privy to the concerns raised by
Seilbea. However, he said it was known practice that you cannot judge someone
before he could even start working.