Everywhere you go, you cannot get away from it. People where football shirts of major European and Sierra Leonean teams and shirts bearing your standard sports manufactures (Nike, Umbro, Adidas, rebook etc). People ask you what your English team is and they always have a view on it – especially if you’re not a top 4 team when they will say your team is not up to standard etc. Differing from my visit to North Africa and Morocco (which many here don’t view as Africa) there doesn’t seem to be shops selling the shirts to a mass audience. One must presume shirts are picked up from charity donors and aid organisations to a larger extent than in Marrakech.
I was fortunate to be asked to train with the Republicans teams – newly promoted back to the Premier Division side they are keen to get as much training in before the season starts next January. They train everyday in the heat from 8.30 – 11. The players here are clearly skilful and the coaches also knowledgeable and my fitness/technique was showed up in the searing heat. Unfortunately the pitch was in reasonably poor condition compared to what I would expect at home. The used only half of the dirt field, while another club used the other side to train completely independently – something I would only expect at school or same club etc at home. The players were very welcoming and spoke to me towards the end, I was struck by the prayer at the end which would be unimaginable with Chelsea or Aston Villa etc. Clearly they need more pitches, as Alfred one of the sportlife’s guys said to me. They also need kit – the standard of equipment was not great as you can imagine.
On Saturday, I was asked to join Coach Akon (of the Republicans) on his weekly Sport show on BBN93FM (one of the most listened to in Freetown). It was in the style of “5 live sport’s report on Saturday mornings, looking to up and coming games and reporting on how Sierra Leoneans had competed in international sports competitions – Table Tennis, Cricket etc. It was a surreal yet interesting experience, it seemed as I have recently done some coaching in the UK that I was some sort of knowledgeable intellect on the game. I say this with sarcasm as I sat next to the presenter who had captained Sierra Leone u21 yet he asked me for advice on formations and style of play. To be honest I felt out of depth but I seemed to handle the questions satisfactorily to the audience there. Furthermore very surprisingly, on the phone in part of the show someone asked me if I would be prepared to transfer some of my technical knowledge to the ‘inexperienced’ coaches here. I was quick to respond saying I would not have the knowledge to speak with authority to these coaches but maybe I would love to come here and play and coach with the youngsters etc. On really struck me with this was how the people here look to the West and see them for some stupid reason as better and more qualified. It is extremely hard to take and comprehend the blatant rejection of their own people’s knowledge – I hope in what I said I put some of this into perspective but it is difficult to know or what to feel. The point hit me harder while we were at the national stadium watching some friendlies between some of Sierra Leone’s big teams when people asked me if I was the “coach” on the radio. Some of the more experienced remarked they expected someone much older, which quite rightly from the respect I was getting they should have. It is easy to see why they think they are not as good as us (colonial system still in part existing today) but what is more important is trying to get them to recognise their resources here and utilise them. We spoke with the major of Freetown too who says they have crops aplenty and their agriculture would be abundant if people decided to harvest and produce crops on a grand scale. He remarked that sugar cane is left to rot in the fields because they cannot store or export it. For someone like him or Pastor Yatta I imagine this to be very difficult to see, especially when we hand Yatta a cereal bar which has mangos in from nearby Burkino Faso.
The need for infrastructure and sponsorship in this country is illustrated again further with our visit to the national stadium. Although a ticket price of 1000 Leones (about 22 pence) to see a full day’s play (4 top premier teams, women’s east v west) hardly anyone turns up to the ageing stadium. The pitch is bouncy and the façade is not what I have come to expect visiting Twickenham, Stamford Bridge, even the Kassam in Oxford, the teams are rarely sponsored, and they get a very small wage from the game. These things that are not surprising to me but still hit home when you see them in the flesh. The country needs a transportation network, it will take us well over 6 hours to travel 200 miles to Koidu (London to Manchester), people want to work but jobs are limited and essentially selling second hand goods is ultimately the best option. Hardly any buildings I have seen would reach European law standards. Although dad and the people here say the country has moved on from 4 years ago, it is fairly desperate in comparison to the UK.
Joni
The weekend starts today and it’s a big soccer weekend in Freetown. Joni and I have been invited to speak about soccer and coaching on the weekly sports programme of radio BBN 92. The station is a Christian channel and the down to earth approach of different channels targeting different audiences here, whether Christian, Muslim or whatever seems extremely natural. The interview goes down well and there is a panel discussion and audience phone in - we laugh that many callers are similar to those on the 606 programme in the UK!
In the afternoon we watch a couple of friendly matches at the National stadium. In fact 4 matches were being played in total today and the same tomorrow, there is a high demand for pitch time here as it is basically the only decent pitch in Freetown. We saw FC Kallon beat the Mighty Blackpool on penalties. FC Kalon is the team set up by Mohammed Kalon who is Sierra Leone’s equivalent to David Beckham (albeit on a smaller scale). The second game is between St Edwards and the Port Authority – we decide to “sneak out” at half time and go over the road with Yatta to the cinema to watch the Spurs v Manchester United match live!
At the cinema we join about 300 other fanatics watching a live beam back without commentary but with UK crowd noise – this is a really effective technique that could be adopted back home we are sure. As the game becomes more exciting so the noise levels go up both here and in England. Most of the locals go wild when Ronaldo scores for Man U with about 20 minutes to go. However a significant minority of those present celebrate when the goal is disallowed for hand ball! It was an exciting match that eventually ended 0-0. This was the 3rd live game shown here today and the fans are already looking forward to the evening match which is arguably the biggest club match in the world, Barcelona v Real Madrid. There will be more live football tomorrow including Chelsea v West Ham!
Richard
If you would like to help some of these guys then please click below: http://www.justgiving.com/sierraleonebayfield01
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