Six Pathways for Arab Countries to Perform Better at the ...

Six pathways for Arab countries to perform better at the World Cup

Football clubs in Arab Counties offer kids football classes at the age of 6 or 7; in European countries, children start their football learning journey at the age of 2 years. Although many private academics began these programs in countries like UAE, Oman, Qatar, and KSA, unlike other countries, we need to see more kids involved with football coaching at a very young age. For example, in the UAE, most kids play in clubs at six years old.

2 – An organized pathway between the school competitions and the Arab Clubs

In most countries that have developed good sports teams other than football, there are many advantages to starting with school and club competitions. Arab counties often lack these qualities compared to other countries, as there is an ongoing competition for the kids. However, there is no time when the actual football association is scouting the players. In my experience, I have seen football clubs organize some coaches or sports teachers similar to remote work to look for good optional players in the school, which I believe is a better option and the right way. The football association should help organize a better interschool competition system and push physical education in the schools as it is a vital subject.

3 – Tables of results at the youth football competition

Often Football clubs in Arab countries care more about the results in the youth football competition and are interested to see which team will be at the top of the table at the end of the season. This pressure is creating an adverse effect on the players and the coaches. The children at this stage should join the club to learn and have fun; otherwise, putting immense pressure on these players and youth coaches results in kids dropping out of the football games. Coaches are then under pressure to have only a certain number of players to use in games and not give a chance to other players to play. In real life, nobody can guess the kids’ future; mistakes have also happened with top football clubs like Barcelona. In Barcelona, the coaching staff had given up on Jordi Alba and sold him when he was on the youth football team. However, they had to repurchase him as he developed as one of the best full-backs in the world. Most European counties have no more tables for the youth league. The aim is to let the kids play football for enjoyment and to let them get the experience rather than focusing on winning or losing games. The European football clubs concentrate on performing teamwork, fitness, healthy lifestyle, listening skills, and independence, which is more important than being the first in the league. The youth academy aims to ensure that two to three good players play with the first team with the same club philosophy.

4 – Coaching course

The Football Association needs to run more professional coaching courses for coaches to increase the number of quality coaches that will effectively develop more players. For example, in Iceland, a tiny county where the weather conditions are much harder than in the UAE, they have built 16 indoor Football venues that the government has paid for. This is so every child has the opportunity to join football classes, and every coach has the opportunity to undertake professional development and coaching courses. Now every 600 people living in Iceland have a qualified Football coach. In the UAE, because of the hot weather during the five months of the year, the children have training for only around seven months. This shorter time affects their football skills development as the children are not active for five months of the year. Every football club should invest more in building Indoor football venues for all their young teams. They should concentrate on running football camps and regular football training during the summer when the children are on holiday, as this will be an excellent time for the kids to develop their football skills. There is another superb example of countries that have changed their strategy in football coaching after England failed to place in the last two world cups. The UK wants more coaches to have a UEFA license and A license as they found that in Spain, the number of people with UEFA coaches is much higher than in England. The UK wants more coaches to participate in more organized Professional development for all coaches and even run online courses for coaches that could not attend the lessons. The Arab Football Association needs to work on a long-term strategy with the clubs and the community to try to improve the coaching level, which helps the player develop their potential tactically and be ready to play football at a higher standard.

5 -Youth League

Most of the Gulf nations currently have many ex-patriate children living there, and clubs should be using the benefits of these kids in their leagues. These ex-patriate children should be training with the local kids of the clubs as they will help the Arab players to learn the good habits of eating and sleeping well, listening to instructions, and being good team players. The Western kids are a part of the clubs and open the club for all the ex-pats to be part of each country’s youth programs like other European counties. If you look at the French national team, for example, most players come from different backgrounds that are not originally French. I believe the Arab countries should try to organize International Football tournaments to be held in Arab countries. They should concentrate on the youth generation to give them the experience and try to play friendly games with the top clubs in the world. The important point is that Arab players need to be exposed to other forms of strategies that can help develop good habits in players.

6 – Adult league

The Football Association should try to push more for their nation to watch the league football games and try to encourage the young generation to support their country league teams. The football association can try to accomplish this in two ways.
The football clubs could bring big stars that may be at the end of their career to play in the league, also having more than two ex-pat players to be on the pitch. Perhaps governments need to support the clubs financially.
The High level of the country football league will improve the story of the National Football team. The clubs could send players to play in the European league. For example, KSA sent players to play in Spanish football teams. However, the mistake in KSA this year was that the national teams they were training with football clubs in Spain were not playing regular football. Instead of buying clubs in UK, France, or Spain, they should try to make it easy for their national team player to be part of the club, as this will help them play at the highest level. The federal or first-team players visit the school more often, organize TV appearances in shopping centers, and push the media to cover the football league news. People will be more interested in following their national and local teams, which will help the nation discover better players.