Foreign coaches have failed us - Bamenda FC Prez

Dinga Joseph President of Bamenda Sports Academy Football Club has expressed strong disapproval over foreign coaches for the national football team of Cameroon, the Indomitable Lions.

He says foreign coaches have failed, adding that it’s time to try local coaches. Dinga spoke to Cameroon Journal in Bamenda, Wednesday, March 18.

Dinga said Cameroon’s football for several years now has been constantly on the decline.” Foreign coaches have so far done nothing to raise the standards of our football all these years that they have been the head of the Indomitable Lions” Dinga lamented.

The football club President, cited some statistics, to corroborate his point.
“The Indomitable Lions were last in classification in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, last in 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and 13th out of 16 teams in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea,” Dinga said.

He said the dismal and disgraceful performances were all recorded under the leadership of foreign coaches. “The concept of foreign coaches may be working elsewhere, but in Cameroon, the indications are clear: foreign coaches have failed woefully, “Dinga said.

Dinga, who founded the Bamenda-based football club in 2005, said his problem with foreign coaches in Cameroon is that, they do not build transitional teams which could serve as nurseries for the senior team.

Another handicap demonstrated by Cameroon’s foreign coaches, Dinga said, is their inability to do proper scouting of local players as the local coaches would do, if the team was under their command.

“The foreign coaches have demonstrated blatant discrimination in scouting for local players viz-a-viz what they do for foreign-based player,” Dinga said. He added that foreign coaches have failed to exploit Cameroon’s cultural diversity to the advantage of the national team.

He said it was not proper for a culturally diverse country like Cameroon to have at one time up to nine to thirteen players in the national team, all indigenous of the Centre Region.

Though a strong advocate for a local coach, he said, however, he’s not in favour of just anyone. “My choice of an indigenous coach is one who is tough and strong minded, like Nigeria's Stephen Keshi,” he stressed.

He went on to say that a local coach must be seen to be firm and strong hearted, to be able to neutralize the reasoning of some foreign based players who may feel that they are more than the coach.

“At some point, we have to depend on our local coaches, and allow them to make mistakes and grow from the mistakes,” Dinga said.

The Bamenda football club President said his suggestion to football authorities in Cameroon, was for them to go in for a local coach and let him come out with a 10 years plan for football in this country.

As one of the advocates for change within football sector in Cameroon, he has secured 1.5 million square meters of real estate for the enterprise.

“This estate, Dinga said, harbours a giant structure for the Bamenda Sports Academy Football Club and the Silver Spring Hotel and Resort, a sports hospitality centre that caters for the needs of football clubs around the country in terms of training and relaxation.