The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

For all those who came out to watch the Bahamas men’s national soccer team take on Bermuda in the 2018 World Cup qualifier on March 25, I thank you and I apologise.

I thank you for showing up and showing your support and I apologise, not for the result and not for the performance. I apologise that you paid your hard-earned money, likely at the behest of myself and my teammates, to witness what can only be described as the culmination of a campaign of self-sabotage.

Many of you may be unaware of the inner workings and behind-the-scenes goings-on in the lead up to a competition such as this. Having been involved with the national soccer team setup for 16 years, I have my share of experience and I can safely say that the run-up to the game against Bermuda was by far the worst I have experienced in those 16 years.

Which has had me questioning why.

Why were preparations so poor? Why was investment in us minimal? Why was a head coach appointed that lacked the experience necessary to coach at this level? Why were some of our best grass players encouraged to play beach soccer instead?

Then, I heard that a senior member of the Bahamas Football Association (BFA) commented after the game on Wednesday that the result was evidence that grass soccer in The Bahamas was dead and we should focus instead on beach soccer.

Granted, there are strong arguments in favour of The Bahamas developing beach soccer. For starters, you need less players on a beach soccer team. Given that we are a small country it is easier to field a quality beach soccer team than it is to field a quality grass soccer team.

Secondly, beach is less technical and relies more on athleticism and fitness, qualities that Bahamians generally possess and are more easily developed. Thirdly, a small country like The Bahamas could more readily make a World Cup finals in beach soccer than in grass soccer. And finally, it is a great avenue to develop sports tourism in The Bahamas.

However, given all the benefits there are to The Bahamas playing beach soccer, the truth is nobody cares about beach soccer internationally. Success in beach soccer would result in fleeting recognition. The true barometer will always be grass soccer. Moreover, you won’t get young players going to college on scholarships from playing beach soccer and professional beach soccer is not lucrative enough to reward the effort and investment required to be put into a youth player to get him to the necessary standard to be a professional.

The only reasons I can offer for why beach soccer is being pursued in The Bahamas are purely financial. FIFA (the world governing body of soccer) has been encouraging alternative forms of soccer for the past ten to 15 years. The federations of countries that have done so have been rewarded with additional funds to ‘develop’ those alternative forms of soccer. Moreover, FIFA has been looking to popular tourist destinations to host beach soccer World Cup finals, as it is thought that such destinations would boost the appeal of and increase revenue from such competitions.

The Bahamas will be hosting the World Cup finals in beach soccer in 2017. It is my understanding that the BFA already receives additional funding as a result of its development of beach soccer. Moreover, I have been informed that the BFA will receive an additional sum in the millions of dollars next year to facilitate preparations for the beach World Cup finals. Now my questions are: where does the additional money from beach soccer go?

The development of youth beach soccer has been buoyed by Quality Beach Soccer, a programme that, until recently was established and run by two beach soccer players, not by the BFA; and currently there are no youth players being developed to take over from the current beach soccer team.

More importantly though, where will the millions that the BFA will receive next year be spent? Will it all genuinely be spent on the beach World Cup Finals? Will it be spent efficiently or will it be wasted? Only time will tell; but it is up to us to hold the BFA accountable.

I dare to make a prediction, however. I predict that beach soccer will be the flavour of the month until the 2017 beach soccer World Cup finals. Once that has come and gone and those that have been pushing beach soccer have satisfied whatever motivation it is they may have, they will stop pushing beach soccer and/or step down from office and beach soccer will phase itself out.

So, should this be the death of grass soccer, I shall ready myself for its resurrection.

CONCERNED

BAHAMAS

NATIONAL

TEAM MEMBER

Nassau

March 31 2015