In his latest column, former Bafana Bafana coach Ted Dumitru offers advice on how to deal with conflicts, and offers solutions to the current problems facing the South African Football Association (Safa).

The decision-making process:

The decision-making process, at all levels, must ensure that there are no potential conflicts of interest.

With the increased level of competitiveness, exposure, and highly attractive financial rewards offered in both local and international competitions, the game needs to be safeguarded against unfair manipulation resulting from potential conflicts of interest, abuse of power and partisan influences.

To ensure respect for, and confidence in the system, all successful models for governing football reflect strict policies for the composition of the council, executive board or similar administrative bodies. Recent examples of countries restructuring their football administration have indicated a general tendency towards electing or appointing independent representatives.

In England, such changes will address perceived problems such as conflict of interest ? for instance, a representative of one Premier League club deciding on financial issues that could impact on other clubs or developmental aspects that affect all clubs.

The solution requires inclusion of independent members at executive and policy-making levels. The other changes should solve the problem of representatives who have too much influence or power and use it to imbalance the field between those who can afford plenty and those who cannot.

The way to do it is by including balanced representation of the grassroots and amateur football sectors alongside representatives of the professional game in the council and executive board.

The quality of technical expertise:

The extent and quality of technical expertise is ultimately responsible for the standards of performance and progress of football.

Echoing spectators' expectation for a more attractive football spectacle there is an unprecedented global commitment to raise the quality and performance levels of the game. In the view of the FIFA Vice-President and UEFA President, Michel Platini, the challenge is to identify comprehensive solutions for "the future of football and football of the future".

Evidently, the future of football depends entirely on how effective those crucial and interrelated factors of politics, finance and the organisation of competitions are utilised. The other part, football of the future, refers to challenges related to the development of players, high quality standards of performance, and advancements in sport science.

In many countries, the respective technical set-up is formalised in various concepts, eg 'The System of Performance', 'The High Performance Code' or 'The Charter for Quality'.

Such systems integrate all approaches and methods into set-ups that are designed to be unitary in concept and specific in application, according to the respective specificity of each country?s game environment.

The importance of technical expertise is demonstrated by number of committees, in some countries five or six that deal with various aspects of technical nature within the respective national associations.

An analysis of the above factors reveals that in comparison to other countries, South Africa has not yet established a high performance set-up in football.

In the absence of this vital tool for improving and monitoring the standards of performance, the football association has no functioning mechanism for maximising nation?s competitive potential in both local and international competitions.

In the context of top international performance, several key components of a 'system of performance' are identified, and the following points appear to have even greater significance:

• Constant increase in participation (the bigger the pool, the better the ratio for talent discovery)
• Talent discovery at the very early age, complete youth development, followed by promotion to professional ranks is achieved through a systematic and continuous process.
• The system of youth competitions (from U-12 small side game to the national U-17 and U-19 teams) is a decisive component in the concept of the development of players.
• The concept and policies for effective youth development are unified and unitarily applied throughout the structures (from school football to youth academies and high performance youth centres).
• Training methodologies, at all levels, are designed by respective national associations to optimise the abilities specific to football, competitive and creative playing mentality of players in accordance with their bio-social profile.
• Precise criteria for the appointment of coaches in youth development, clubs and national teams regulate and control the quality and experience provided in this crucial area.
• New methods are continuously introduced to address the pressing need for improving the quality of football and the solutions comprise intensive work on technical skills, creativity and deceptive moves.
• Advanced sport science information and the involvement of experts in related academic fields is offered, with particular concentration on the specific-complexity of training, medical aspects, nutrition, life habits and social behaviour.
• Coaches, mostly through the coaches? associations or unions, are provided with periodical refresher courses and attend conventions. Similar programmes are also offered to referees and other technicians.
• Sufficient and functional facilities, including hi-tech artificial grass grounds (the surface of the future) are available for all activities, including grassroots football.
• Government contributions, particularly in the form of building and providing facilities, as well as financial support for youth development is universally acknowledged.
• Monitoring, assessment and control over the entire technical sector (development, amateur and professional football) are the responsibility of the national association. This is achieved through specific structures and functions such as the technical committees, technical departments, coaches? forum (association), the technical control board, medical and sport science sub-committees, etc.

Currently, in the absence of a national policy and structures to deal with the above technical tasks, the PSL is planning its own solutions for improving some facets of performance.

The club factor:

The analysis shows that in the sport leading nations, without exception, the pillar of football, its quality and performance and spectator participation is the club factor. The ingredients that make the concept of modern club structure so determinant can be summarized in the following:

• Community based, community supported. It is considered that for clubs to exist and function they must represent particular communities which, in return, generate support.
• Progressive leadership and democratic operating principles. Effective policy ensures continual commitment to technical improvements (coaching, players and support systems). Democratic principles apply in all club activities and ensure that there is representation of supporters and other stakeholders whenever decisions are taken.
• Consistent successes in competitions determine lucrative sponsorship and revenue.

A unified and formalized concept of club structure and administration regulated by the above principles should be regarded by SAFA as an urgent priority.

Media in Italy, Spain, Brazil, England and France plays a vital role by extensively covering club activities. In average, some 80 percent of the general sport coverage in these countries is allocated to football and to a large extent this exposure involves the clubs. This is far from the scenario offered by the South African sport media.

Rehabilitation of football takes time:

As the effort to identify the blueprint for the rehabilitation of football in this country intensifies, there should not be any illusion that somewhere it is a short cut. All stakeholders must accept the reality that there will be a long and bumpy road ahead. What is actually needed, is a lot a wisdom, courage and patience.

Football, more than anything else in the world, is the People?s Game and has a powerful, almost religious impact on society. It is an obligation and a duty to maintain and develop the game in its own interests in order for the abundant benefits to flow through all strata of society.

A country with a healthy and successful football component is a happy country. People are capable of overlooking some of the greatest miseries and hardships in their lives as long as their team is winning and they are enjoying their football.

The frustrating thing about the football situation in South Africa is that all the resources and expertise required to elevate the country to a level where we are a significant player on the world football stage are either present or potentially available to us.

What it requires is a sustained effort to conceptualise an intelligent vision, the implementation.