The Tribune

By CAMERON HEPPLE

I WAS fortunate enough to represent The Bahamas at the recent FIFA/CONCACAF/CONEMBOL World Cup 2014 conference in Panama and was blown away by the organisation of the event and the information provided about the World Cup.

They dubbed it “The Best World Cup Ever” with 177 goals scored - equalling the 1998 finals in France. They pointed out a change in the mentality of teams in Brazil, more were going into games with a “winning” mentality rather than the “lets not lose” approach from the previous World Cup.

Not only was it a more attacking World Cup but the statistics showed that the game is changing. “Teams” are winning World Cups, not so much the teams with the best players. This immediately comes down to a federation’s organisation of the youth system and keeping an under-12 team together all the way to the men’s programme, something that the Germans have clearly perfected after their recent success in men’s and women’s youth World Cups.

I was humbled to be in a room full of some legends of the game: for example I sat next to a manager who took Brazil to the World Cup and two rows back the Mexican manager, Miguel Herrera, was relaxed, nothing like how he was on the sidelines in the World Cup. The conference was a wealth of information about the importance of having a sustainable youth programme and during the panels with coaches who made it to the World Cup - and then another with coaches who didn’t - you see the key factors that made the difference. One of the main points was the team behind the team (scouting, medical, physiology, physiotherapist, administration) which is a problem in some of the smaller regions because of finances. But not impossible: it is all about finding the right model to fit that country.

One of the biggest points at the conference was the drastic improvement CONCACAF has made in the development of football, compared to other federations. CONCACAF has evolved more rapidly than others with the success of Costa Rica and the United States in the World Cup.

FIFA has noticed this success and is now helping the smaller regions to improve their youth development and assist with the growth of other areas of football like futsal and beach soccer, which smaller federations may utilise to assist with the development of grass football.

My immediate thought for the advancement of football in The Bahamas will be international youth competitions. Not only will this improve development and competition in youth football but it will impact our sports tourism industry greatly with our proximity to other footballing nations.

It is natural to think this will be the next step in The Bahamas and finding a sustainable development programme for the youth with the inclusion of beach soccer and futsal as pillars to develop skills in grass soccer.

I would like to thank the Bahamas Football Association (BFA) for allowing me the opportunity to make the trip to Panama and experience what I did. I gained a wealth of knowledge to assist with the development of football in The Bahamas and plan on helping in anyway I can to develop not only quality players but quality citizens in this country.

Stephen Bellot, who was also in Panama, concurred with Cameron Hepple and thanked the BFA for furthering his football knowledge through this seminar.

He said coaching education was also discussed and he is volunteering to conduct a mini-seminar on the material covered and how local coaches can use this to further their programmes, having been strongly encouraged by FIFA to share this information and put it to use.