Move towards youth development commendable
Based on recent reports, it appears the club has started to take some tentative steps towards establishing a youth structure. This move has been a long time coming. In the past there has been a lot of rhetoric about creating youth development structures but nothing has ever happened.
Brookside Dairies, which sponsors both Gor Mahia and Thika United has undertaken to bring the best players from the East Africa school games to Nairobi for trials.
Tobias Ochiel has been appointed as the chief scout. We are establishing a very clear youth structure in our team and a bulk of these players will be the first batch, Ochiel told futaa.com.
According to futaa.com, the players selected are as follows:
Upper Hill
Cavine Odongo
St Marys
Dan Birikwalire (left-back), Samuel Mwanje (Central Midfielder) and Faruk Umia (Attacking midfielder).
Standard High School
Ddumba Dennis (Left-back), Godfrey Ochan (Central Defender), Kafiru Shafa (Striker) and Kabeja Idrissa (midfielder).
Kathungi High School
Benjamin Kilonzi (Goalkeeper)
Glinti
Wildi Dahiya (Midfielder)
Lord Baden Powell
Hamisi Mwiny (midfielder)
Dan Birikwalirwa, Samuel Mwanje, Dennis Ddumba and Hamisi Mwinyi have been selected for trials with the senior team while the rest will join the youth team according to Ochiel.
Its worth noting that these are just tentative steps. A real youth scheme should have several levels below the U19 level such as U16 and U13. It is much easier to instill proper fundamentals in younger players when it is easy to rid them of bad habits.
Secondly, there are several talented youth all over the country who did not participate in the East Africa school games. Gor Mahia should revive the scouting network they had in the 1970s and 1980s which did a wonderful job of identifying talented players at the grassroots and sending them to Kogalo.
This is a great move in the right direction.This is what we have been advocating for in the past postings.
I believe this will be a new beginning for turning the club into a professional outfit.
Youth structures is the way to go…in bringing untapped talent from across the region. This will be good for the East African countries football development.
Again I wouldn’t hold my breath as regards anything to do with this EC. Let’s wait and see.
Fellow bloogers allow me 2 long postings for your info or review.
1. An article of handling match day security. Note the our EC engages the same number of security personnel, what goes wrong is vested interests.
How do the police plan ahead for a match day?
A London police officer, highly experienced in match-day intelligence, details what is required before a game can be staged
The police have to be thoroughly prepared for match days, with a number of considerations to be taken into account by the authorities.
Who makes the decisions?
Every match requires a safety certificate which has to be agreed by the local Safety Advisory Group, and then is signed off by its chairman. The SAG is made up of members from the respective football club, the local police, fire brigade, ambulance service and council.
If any party can’t provide a service that would ensure the safety and security of the event then it would be up to the Safety Advisory Group chairperson to decide whether that event could go ahead.
The reason why matches could be called off this weekend is if the emergency services feel they would be too stretched and that they could not provide the staff, and by extension the safety and security of those attending. The SAG chairperson, who is normally somebody senior from the local council, will decide, with every party’s agreement, as with Wembley – the FA agreed it wasn’t sensible in the circumstances for England’s friendly against Holland to be played, given the current circumstances.
How is each game assessed with regard to safety?
We grade all football matches on a basis of categories. Some fixtures are police free and we don’t need to attend or have any involvement with them – such as the lower league clubs where only hundreds or maybe thousands are attending. Those are categorised as stewards only and are known as “police-free, club?stewarding”.
Then there is category A, effectively a low?risk game with minimal police, maybe none inside the stadium, just on the outskirts. Category B is medium risk; C, which is for high-risk fixtures, and there is C+, for increased risk, which is obviously games like, say, Manchester United v Manchester City, or Tottenham against Arsenal.
In London we have a scoring system, a matrix, in which we value the amount of people attending the game, the animosity and history of the two sides and the intelligence provided, and it comes out almost with a recommendation.
The category of a game can change depending on the time of the year and the time of kick-off. If you reduce the category then you reduce the number of police required, and this reduces cost.
How many officers are needed for the different category games?
You can’t say a specific number. It really depends on what club you are talking about. A cat?B game in Manchester between two teams from there or between teams from London in the capital can be totally different. A cat?A fixture could be as low as a dozen officers. A cat?B could be as many as 50; and a C as many as 200 or 300.
What do police do at games and in relation to match stewards?
Ultimately, safety and security is down to the football club and for that their safety officer is in control. The police commander is in charge of police resources, though, and he and the safety officer sit side by side in the control room and work together to ensure overall safety.
But the safety officer has responsibility for anything inside that event. This might mean they turn to the commander and say: “Could you send some officers to that incident as the stewards can’t deal with it.”
Stewards effectively police the inside of football stadiums. The police support the stewards in that. If a situation went from policing a normal event to disorder breaking out, the police take primacy, but again they would work closely with the club.
Every club has protocols, contingencies for every eventuality. They practise them through table-top exercises. So if there is a suspect package or a bomb hoax or if there is a need to get a ground empty quickly, every steward and police officer knows where they fit into that model and the role they take on.
It is all intelligence led and follows from the conversation between the club and the police regarding whether the risk of a match needs to be increased so that then the number of police and stewards on duty increases.
For some cat?A games in London you can have around 150 police on duty but actually policing the match would only be 50. The rest would monitor those coming out of the Tube stations etc. But there could be 700 stewards. For every 250 fans one steward is required – that’s set in stone.
How do the different police forces co-ordinate?
Every time there is a game, British Transport police, the visiting police and the local police are involved. There are long-standing relationships between all of the forces.
Everybody is linked in. If the BTP cannot ensure its side of the bargain then that puts pressure on the whole chain. If, say, the St John’s Ambulance and the London Ambulance Service can’t provide first aid cover for a game, well even if the police can, that game cannot go ahead.
Article history
Football
Sport
UK news
Police ·
UK riots 2011
Jamie Jackson
The Guardian, Wednesday 10 August 2011 18.55 BST
Over to you EC.SSMB, KPL,FKF engage the police it ain’t ROCKET SCIENCE.
@2ODUOR12 Thanks for the insight but I believe if we were to go about that no match might ever be played in Kenya, if not Africa outside SA. Our stadia themselves are death traps. Look at all the stadia except Kasa all hove perimeter fences which caused deaths if Hillsborough (or somewhere like that) during the Liverpool match. See what happened in Awendo and in Nyayo when five to seven fans died.
We still have a long way to go
Good step EC. I usually condemn u guyz but this is a very encouraging move. I will keenly follow this move. Congracts to tuzo guyz too.
Congrats to stars. U guyz looked strong and for once jamal , that was a good showing. If only u could cut down on the majivuno ud be far off. The abiud omar guy,
now that’s a gem. Lavatsa is a poor show.
Sony, thnx for helping gor. But gor will still beat, infact I now wish for replay ndio mupewe kichapo proper.
David owino keep it up. At least ur one quality player gor can brag about.
Ooh Laa la “SHERIA NI MUSUMENO INA KATA PANDE ZOTE MBILI”.
It is not about supporting HOOLIGANISM but observing the RULE OF LAW TO THE LATTER.And it is on record that we have been advocating for tighter measures against our own GOR MAHIA if our fans keeps on mis-behaving; this is inclusive of point deduction and playing in empty stadium. We have cried loud on this site that we better save the BRAND and miss the TROPHY if need be.
@ dinga on post # 4. Please follow up this youth structure and development to the latter. You have been the brainchild and mastermind of this course on this blog. This is your pet project.
On the other hand please forget and desist from dreaming about the re-play with SoNy. The FIFA rules that govern affiliates local organizations or federations who manage local football competitions like FKF has been followed to the latter and with that few remarks be informed that GOR MAHIA has been awarded the three points and 2 goals as required.
Now let us build bridges after falling out on this GOR / SoNy fiasco that was pioneered by none other than SoNy themselves.
As the Trailer says ‘Let us build bridges’ and hopefully talk about our own issues soberly.
Can someone tell me why our defence is suddenly leaking? In the recent friendly we were hit two goals, against Sony we got two, against Ingwe we got two. Bwana Williamson, are you aware that your assistant is considered Kenya’s best ever defender? What is going on? Tap some of his ideas please.
On the attacking front, i must say there has been a tremendous improvement and now we fight to the end and get goals. Congrats for that.
FKF has done justice on the Sony Vs Gor abandoned match. Now they should follow up one issue: why did the ref. and match comm. ommit some important details in their reports? I stil repeat what i said last time, that Sony officials pleadf with them to write a favourable report. This matter should be investigated and action taken.
Justice has prevailed….for once on Gors side!!However,let it be a lesson to all….we might just be the next to lose points,so to all our fans,lets behave…the end is in sight,let us not wreck it with incidences of hooliganism please!!!