Sven Should Stop Looking for Excuses
The best approach for Sven would have been to offer to train local coaches, introduce them to his methods and identify those who were quickest to adapt. That could have been handled quietly and professionally between the technical bench and FAZ.
It should not suddenly become a headline issue after failing to qualify Zambia for AFCON.
The man appears to be clutching at straws to avoid drowning.
We have seen foreign coaches arrive in Zambia before with GPS systems, performance monitoring equipment, analytics and all the other modern bells and whistles. Buildcon, for example, once had a highly technical setup under their foreign coaching staff. But technology alone does not turn an average team into a winning one.
Analytics, GPS data and sports science are valuable tools in modern football, but they remain tools. They support coaching decisions; they do not replace tactical judgement, player management, team selection and results on the pitch.
The elephant in the room is much simpler: Sven was brought in with the objective of qualifying Zambia for AFCON, and he failed.
Everything else risks becoming a distraction.
If the technical shortcomings around him were serious enough to prevent him from doing his job, why were they not raised much earlier? Sven spent considerable time travelling and talking about monitoring players. At one stage, he even attended the Women’s AFCON while speaking about identifying talent. Yet after qualification slipped away, suddenly Zambia’s wider football environment became part of the explanation.
It simply doesn’t add up.
Remember also the press conference following the draw against Namibia, when another explanation emerged: Zambian players were supposedly too short in stature.
Since when did height determine whether a country can produce quality footballers?
Football history is full of exceptional players who were hardly giants. Diego Maradona and Gianfranco Zola are obvious examples. Size can matter in certain positions and tactical situations, but technique, intelligence, movement and organisation matter just as much.
Zambia should not have to go through another long experiment while a national-team coach learns African football.
We went through that learning curve with Hervé Renard before eventually enjoying the rewards. But every appointment cannot become another national experiment.
What Zambia needs is a coach with the experience, tactical understanding and track record to compete at AFCON level and ultimately challenge for World Cup qualification.
Sven may have had ideas worth introducing into Zambian football, and local coaches certainly have plenty to learn from modern coaching methods. But those discussions should not obscure the fundamental measurement of a national-team coach: results.
On that measurement, Sven failed his assignment.
For me, Sven remains COSAFA material. Period.
