Guys, I have been following this arguement from the beginning, and I can honestly say that there has yet to any credible arguement to defend the need for foreign coaches in Africa. I'm not an expert on football; but from the writings of Joe Sambou and others, it seems to me that our African coaches are doing a very good job consideration the condtions under which they are working. All that aside. My arguement is that whether our African coaches are as good as the Europeans is really irrelevant. The bottom line is that foreign coaches are simply not healthy for the developement of football in Africa. Furhtermore, we will never be able to know they full potential of our local coaches if they are constantly being replaced by their foreign counterparts. Like I said, I'm not a football expert; but from a logical view, any system/program that promotes outsiders to manage anything within is simply a set back for the continent. It seems to me that most ofthe things that we do in Africa today are directly borrowed from somewhere outside of Africa. This can be seen anywhere from our so called "modern Agricultural techniques, medecine, systems of Government, laws governing us, e.t.c. Ultimately, any African football team that succeeds with a foreign coach at the helm will only be another story of a sucessful system, but a sytem that has been borrowed. I hope i can leave to see a day when Africans will learn the value initiating things right from scratch and build something for themselves that works, rather always trying to take the easy route. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------