We need a Kenyan football culture

 “Which is the most popular sport in Brazil?”

The answer is volleyball; soccer is a 'religion' in Brazil. You will be forgiven if you thought that soccer was invented in Brazil- the Irish gave us potatoes and the French fried it the same way the British invented football and Brazilians made it beautiful. Brazil stands still for approximately one hundred and five minutes every time the ‘samba boys’ step into the pitch. The game is played extensively and intensively in the emerging major economy of South America.

It is an honour to wear the green and gold ‘El Selecao’ jersey, the selection- as their national team is known in Brazil or ‘samba boys’ to the world. They play with fun, such that Robinho offered to help ‘stiff’ members of the Brazil squad during the 2010 World Cup with dancing lessons. Where coaching Gor is the hardest job in Kenya, to be the coach of Brazil is both hard and easy. The easiest job because of the quality of players available and the hardest because of high expectations.

Let us take a trip down memory lane. The Indians roamed Brazil before the Portuguese colonized them and brought in Africans to work in their farms. Africans brought their food, music, dance, and martial arts to their new found home. Between 1885-1933 soccer was a game for the British elite, when the native Brazilians picked it they took it to the beaches, streets and every space they could find. The British have never known what happened to their game. The great thing that happened either by default or design was to fit football into their culture.

The Brazilian soccer style is a reflection of the culture of its people who dance samba creatively in a swing in various rhythms and choreographies. Soccer then is transformed into an art and its players into soccer artists. The same creativity goes into their popular culture of samba dance, Capoeira- Brazilian martial arts, and football. The martial arts element brings the discipline associated with most of Brazilian players. Football helped the poor people develop great capacity to overcome barriers with imagination that has influenced the world to date.

What about Kenya

Kenya’s qualification campaign for African Cup of Nations and 2014 World Cup in Brazil has began. We have already beaten Togo 2-1 at home for a place in South Africa next year. We then embark on the road to Brazil 2014, where we are in the same group with Nigeria. Hope is the last thing to die, but little has changed from our failed campaign for Gabon/E. Guinea 2012.

To people who know football, watching Harambee stars play can be disappointing. The same cancer that ails England in the international stage is with us. We lack a team culture, a way of play that can frustrate and tear down opponents. Reinhardt Fabisch tried to craft a culture in the mid nineties but our football gatekeepers in their character fired him.

Looking at Total Football, with roots in Hungary in the 1950’s; Jack Reynolds who managed Ajax Amsterdam till 1947 took note of the system. Rinus Michels,who played under Reynolds and later coached Ajax refined it and the Dutch national team also adopted it. Barcelona tweaked it into ‘tiki taka’ football and Spanish national team followed suit. Total Football involves players moving into spaces, while ‘tiki taka’ involves ball movement. This transformation may have been influenced by the South Americans at Barcelona.

The blend of cultural diversity can bring out the Kenyan taste of hard tackles, jump like Maasai morans for aerial balls, run steeplechase then dance taarabu towards the end of a match. Unless we develop our own style of play we will keep playing catch up. The dependence on individual talent is myopic and catastrophic. Now that Denis Oliech and Mariga have a bone to pick with FKF, we need a change of strategy.

We have a mosaic of rich culture which if we apply in sports will be more beneficial to us. If we can stop trying to play like the British who invented soccer and formulate our own original tactical style and rhythm then we can start saving for the2014 world cup in Brazil.

The Cost
Culture comes at a cost, weather you have to burry your next of kin in your ancestral land or to visit your in-laws twice. The same applies to corporate culture and to football; you have to pay by investing in football at every level, from primary schools all the way to our Premier League. We must set up vibrant leagues and build at least one world class playing surface in each county. Then look for ways of attracting the children to the pitches and offer them more than football.

Countries that perform well in team sports in the world have a structure, code of ethics and a way of life around the sport. Americans will put a basketball rim on any wall and space, Indians will play cricket on any space. We have to take our football seriously and inculcate it into our day to day life. We have to move away from the two cultures we are known for- impunity and corruption which have hurt our football as well.

Former KFF chairman Job Omino said that coaches come and go. We will fire Ghost Mulei, hire and fire Francis Kimanzi, make Hey (Antonie) when the sun is not shining, then hire Zedekiah ‘Zico’ Otieno over and over again after firing Francis Kimanzi. If we have a culture, it will not matter who takes charge, they will have a guiding template. We shall never make an impact with a wing and prayer mentality.

Building Rome
Everyone thought the exit of Frank Rijkard will spell doom for FC Barcelona especially when the untested Pep Guardiola replaced him. Rijkard was successful but he is not missed at the Nou Camp. Barcelona has perfected a culture that has influenced the Spanish national team under Luis Aragonés and currently Vicente del Bosque. Jack Reynolds must be smiling in his grave.

Jack Reynolds planted the seed at Ajax, Rinus Michels, who played under Reynolds and later coached Ajax refined it into “Total Football" (Totaalvoetbal in Dutch) then used it as the Dutch national team coach in the 70’s. Michells left for Barcelona and took Ajax forward Johan Cruyff with him leaving Stefan Kovacs to re-refine the style at Ajax. Johan Cruyff was the system's most important product; he went back to coach Ajax. He moved to Barcelona in 1988 to 1995 where he coached Rijkard and Guardiola.

It was not about individual coaches (Michels, Kovacs or Cruyff), the system developed organically and collaboratively. According to former Ajax defender Barry Hulshoff, it was about making and coming into space, then organizing spatial designs on the pitch. Cruyff’s philosophy of Total Football- is simple football, which he says is the most beautiful but the hardest to play. He set up a self belief culture at Camp Nou that is still at the club to date. "Our mentality from the start was to focus on being the best because that's how you win. It's a way of thinking: look at yourself first and not at the others," he explained.

We will not do it in one day but we have to look for our own Jack Reynolds who will flag off a revolution. The ripple effect may just make us the football power house in Africa and the world. The incubation point for such a revolution is our clubs; we have to start from where our players spend most of their time, not the national team.

Zambia did not win the AFCON 2012 by fluke, that team was built in 2006, it has just been maturing with age.

Brazil, Netherlands and Spain are not football powerhouses by fluke. We should have done it yesterday, but the future is ours to make.