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VOTE FOR THE TRANSFORMATION OF FOOTBALL

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(Weekend Sports Editor)

MBABANE – Success is no accident; it is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing. 


These were the above wise words uttered by arguably football’s greatest player of all time, Pele of Brazil, born Edson Arantes do Nascimento on October 23, 1940 in Três Corações.
The football cult hero had seen it all in life and his wise words could be vital for the FA’s over 40 delegates who vote this morning should shape the future of local football.


Everything football wise will come to a standstill at least for about an hour today, as the National Football Association of Swaziland (NFAS) fulfils its constitutional obligation of electing a new executive committee into office that will run the sport for the next four years. Tensions are already high, and to be precise they have reached boiling point this time around given the many battles fought in the build-up to the elective AGM. The judgment of Justice Sipho Nkosi on Friday was one that for the neutrals confirmed an interesting three-horse race for the presidential position. The outgoing Adam ‘Bomber’ Mthethwa, who won unopposed in 2013 has two opponents today in two of his former deputies; Timothy Shongwe and Mashumi Shongwe.


American psychologist Jonathan Haidt when describing elections said it was the main religious ritual of democracy and from that perspective he said delegates entrusted with casting the votes should vote their conscious.
Scottish Bill Blain, on the other hand, in the run up to the Scotland referendum, painstakingly implored his natives to consider what might be gained versus what might be lost from their choice, in his call for the nation up north of the United Kingdom to vote with their heads than their hearts. “My organisation cannot be lobbied because we do not vote for a face, but we vote for a vision,” remarked one local football administrator going to this morning’s election.
Personally, I believe this is what we should be considering when voting individuals to such positions of power in our beloved sport.


Football has demonstrated its global appeal and power. The exploits of Sihlangu and later Mbabane Swallows in Africa marked a dawn of a new era that football politicians should embrace, understand and flourish.
The results of the two teams; Sihlangu and Swallows illustrated the potential of the sport in the country that for years has remained untapped. This new reality needs to be embraced, maintained and further improved.
The NFAS should stop being an organisation whose modus operandi is embedded on subjectivity, but on objectivity. We need a leader with a clear vision, strategy and the willpower to implement all these.


We have attained stability, but the sport needs a lot of innovative approaches for it to be at par with the best in the continent and the world. The new executive should draw up a mark for a progressive football growth. The growth path should be understood and embraced by all.
As the delegates prepare to cast their votes on behalf of the huge football loving constituency, they should do so with the sole aim of improving the sport, than  create a buddies club only obsessed with power and nothing more.

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