National team weekly trainings: A hunt for short term glory

Feb 11, 2015 - 12:20:06 | Hussain Ibrahim
Newly appointed national team coach, Velizar Popov

FAM and new head coach Velizar Popov’s current plan of having weekly trainings with national team players seem exciting on paper but if we look deeper into it we see flaws as well. This is something not been practiced in many countries and at the same time we must know our system is different and not been practiced anywhere doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing (also must take note, there is a reason why others or the majority not doing this).

If we look into the past we all agree that Maldives don’t play much friendly games. Unlike regional giants India, we assemble our national team just three or four weeks before the tournament and do the trainings and have a training camp outside the country.

Having regular training sessions is always a key to success. A medium for coaching staff to understand the players and also players to understand the tactics wanted by the coach. But when a club is preparing for a competitive tournament, the question really rises whether it is the best idea to leave the players for national team trainings, even for one day.

We have never heard of any compensation plan being established in FAM to take care of players medicals if they get injured during national team duty or take the burden of player’s salary if the club didn’t get the service of the player for a longer period. As a club having contract with a player and spending every month for his service, this is a big concern.

Another concern for the club coach might be the chance of opponent players really spot on the weakness of a player by practicing together in the national team training. For example, Team A and Team B are preparing for a deciding game in the season and few days before the game players from both teams are practicing together sounds a bit odd. Obviously we know the culture here in Maldives, any player or official from any club can easily monitor trainings of another club but it is a bit different compared to both team players playing together, which allows the players to learn more closely the fitness or any minor injury the player is having.

We must not forget that the players belong to clubs and clubs release players for national team but the new attempt from FAM is contrast to this fundamental rule of football. There is a reason why it is being written and practiced by FIFA to have a timeline for clubs to release players for their national team duty.

If FAM wants to see a stronger national team then they must better find strong opponents to play friendly games and make a structure within the organization to make the domestic league more competitive. Requesting clubs to release their national team players once in a week is more like ignoring their actual work and hunt for a short term success.Do we prefer to win SAFF Championship this year and wait for another 20 years for the next title? or compete for the title in every tournament?

Did Germany won 2014 FIFA World Cup by having weekly national team trainings?

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Nizam on Feb 11
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Very stupid article obviously with the influence of new radiant - the coach want to change the things for better but some people don't want changes for better, I can't believe that's happening , no one is bigger than national team, even new radiant or another team
Ahan on Feb 11
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What is this??? Well ok, this article is not totally stupid but still what's wrong with weekly trainings. the current FAM is trying to do a good job, so far they have done many good things. A good coach for NT, trying to improve local league, U19 team playing in 2nd division, promise of regular friendlies to NT ( one already confirmed). So based on this I assume they are focused on long term too!!! And again should we be forgetting our short term goals? our NT has been sleeping since the Challenge cup, a very busy and important games/tournaments are ahead, should we be sitting and do nothing??? I guess we have to have these training and try to gel the NT before the WC qualification matches.
Shambe on Feb 11
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did the guy who wrote this knew that FIFA HAVE ALREADY ARRANGED compensation for injuries while they are on national duty,s .. I think FAM is yet to announce it .. This article is yes to defend newradiants decision .. Nothing else .. National coach is not doing any physical trainings .. Only tactical trainings .. And there is not a single player which any one want to know their weakness .. Sorry to say this is a very weak biased article ..
bakuru on Feb 11
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Superb article..while nrsc have 3 competitive matches before nt has the friendly on 26th march i see no reason why the players have to be released for this stupid and useless training for just 1 training per week. These trainings will give more harm to the teams then benefits. I salute the management of nrsc for this decision as they have proved they will not be puppets of this coach and agree to anything he says. He has done a lot to nrwc but sorry sir your idea of 1 training is stupid and will.not work
Hakuru on Mar 25
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shame on you bakuru. you know nothing about football! but still you have a big mouth....!
footballmad on Feb 23
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The article seems to have jumped to the conclusion before the jury's out. There's no way to find out if clubs releasing players to the NT is going to backfire until we have tried it out. I support Popov's approach to working and consulting with the clubs and I'm sure there will be points and times the weekly trainings can be negotiated but overall, on paper, to common sense, I think it's a fantastic approach to having a cohesive National team. In addition, the clubs I'm confident will appreciate that getting regular team tactics, motivation and skills from a successful coach will keep these great players focussed on their form, fitness all times. I totally support the idea.
Imma on Mar 02
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Bit too early to tell whether it's a good idea or not. Certainly, this is a practice that is not seen anywhere else, but one could argue that innovators don't do things like everyone else! However, I will respectfully disagree with the writer of this article. Sure, weekly training sessions for the national team may be a tad unorthodox, but we have to wonder, if these sessions were not held, how would our national team prepare? We have a friendly match against Tajikistan in late March. If the players did not participate in these sessions with Popov, then that friendly match would probably be played after 2 days of practice sessions. In essence, that friendly would then be useless. I understand that New Radiant are unwilling to send their players to these sessions, but what purpose does that serve? It's not like they're setting the world alight right now, anyway. Currently, clubs hold only 3 or 4 sessions per week. Increasing the players practice time by one session will be good for their physical fitness and also tactical awareness, as Popov likes to integrate these two factors to his training sessions. Ultimately, the goal of the clubs, improving the domestic league etc. should be for the benefit of the national team. That is why Germany are the world champions. Their clubs, coaching personnel and everyone else in football got together in 2004 to discuss how to improve the quality of their future generations, came up with a masterplan to win the World Cup in 10 years and created a football coaching syllabus. As a result, their youth academies, coaching staff and youngsters know precisely what needs to be done. They have been churning out talent since then. Stark contrast to England; their main purpose is to advertise and improve the Barclays Premier League. Their clubs jealously guard the best English players and urge the national team to not overexert them. As a result, the England national team has been in decline and have not looked like winning anything since 1966. New Radiant can act like an over-protective mother, but I'm certain that their local players would dearly love to participate in these weekly training sessions with their former coach Velizar Popov.
Ahan on Mar 06
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why so late?? I wished to see your comment on this article on day one. Anyway you have made good points too. What i understood from life is that people (well most people) change their stand only when their mind wants to. Until their minds start to agree or believe, they will be against it. So that is what happened to the writer as well, even if we give hundreds of examples explaining him the benefits of these trainings he will disagree. He is in many ways blind when he compared Maldives to other countries in football. Did Germany or any other country won world cup playing their league ONLY in their capital city? Did any player or a club won anything solely being semi-professional? There are so many things that we are doing different. And those things are affecting our progress in the game. But i highly doubt that these trainings would affect negatively. One reason other teams CANNOT do these trainings is the time it will take the players to travel. It will at least take 3 days for the players who are from other cities. This won't be feasible/acceptable for them.

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