Swindon Town FC’s blueprint can help Pakistan football

Swindon Town FC, a professional club based in England, has spearheaded a project in Karachi that can be used as an example for one of the most powerful ways how our local authorities can raise the standard of football.

Alex Pike, Swindon Town Academy coach, who is a UEFA B licensed coach, spent a week in Karachi conducting trials at the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Stadium for young football players aged 15 and under.

After the conclusion of the trials on Saturday, March 26, as many as 26 players were short-listed to undergo specialised training based on the methods of Swindon Town FC that will take place in the metropolis.

Pike will visit Karachi again in May and October to monitor the progress of the players and to ensure that the training sessions are being carried out at the required standard.

Later in the year, two players will be selected to travel to the United Kingdom and they will spend two years as academy players at Swindon Town FC. After the completion of that period, they will have a chance to fulfil their dream of receiving a professional contract at the club.

Moreover, two coaches have been selected to travel to the club so that they can bolster their coaching education and gain knowledge.

The trials had a combination of 11-a-side matches, as well as technical and tactical training sessions. The experienced coach diligently assessed each player with the help of local coaches who facilitated him with communication with the players. The training sessions tested the players’ technical skills but also challenged them to think critically about the game and make decisions accordingly.

Pikes believes that there is a strong possibility that some of these talented players can play at the elite level in England.

“From what I have seen so far, I must say that there is a lot of talent,” he said. “But it’s really raw. However, with proper and structured training, like what we have back in England, these kids can become professional players.”

These words are pretty encouraging for the future of Pakistan football in terms of the fact that the youth of the country do have the core ingredient – the raw talent — to reach the heights in the game of football. However, it is only possible with ‘proper and structured’ training.

Raw talent without high-quality training is unlikely to produce professional level players.

Some may wonder what distinguishes Pike’s training sessions from other training sessions in Pakistan. Having personally spent two full days observing his methods, there were countless differences in his training routine compared to the training witnessed in the city (apart from a few academies like Karachi United).

Firstly, the players were constantly engaged and involved. They were not standing idle. They were making moves, making decisions and executing actions.

Usually, I am accustomed to seeing players standing idle, waiting in line for their turn to pass or shoot and evidently disinterested in the drills. This was not the case with Pike’s session.

Secondly, he often told the players to freeze while they were performing the drill. This command of freezing – was a cue for the players to stand still in their positions and for Pike to pass on information to help them improve their understanding of the game.

The players were questioned, probed and pushed to analyse their own actions and the pros and cons of those actions in the context of the game.  Again, a feature that is alien to most training sessions in the country.

In 2018, Real Madrid FC coaches visited Karachi and conducted workshops for football coaches, which I attended as well.

Midway through the second day, one of the coaches asked the head trainer a question, “What is the secret behind Real Madrid’s success?”

The head trainer responded, “There is no secret besides doing the right things, consistently.”

We often wonder about the secret of the success of foreign clubs in terms of talent development. We ponder over that secret ingredient that we must know to develop stars like Kylian Mbappe, Robert Lewandowski and Cesc Fabregas.

However, most foreign qualified coaches who visit the country seem to tell us the same thing in slightly different words.

Firstly, we must have youth academies for players that have the raw talent to potentially play professionally. Secondly, we must invest in the education and expertise of the coaches who will be teaching the children.

The two coaches that will travel to Swindon Town will hopefully come back to the hometown and help hundreds of football players with their knowledge and learnings.

The process of feedback being given to our local coaches via video link from the coaches at Swindon Town will also play a key role in improving them as coaches and therefore increasing the chances of Pakistan producing world-class players.

Footballing authorities must learn from this model initiated by Swindon Town FC and Pike’s words must be taken seriously by the Normalisation Committee of the Pakistan Football Federation.

While there are numerous areas to improve within the ecosystem of Pakistan football – we must recognise that if we are to see Pakistan at the World Cup one day, it will not be possible with the current level of training that children are receiving. It is no fault of the coaches, in fact, it is a failure of our federation which has not provided learning opportunities for them to improve their coaching standard.