MUSCAT, June 5 - By the end of the Omani football season, a large number of football analysts and fans asked club managements to trust the local managers as they proved their ability to lead the teams. The Omantel Professional League (OPL) 2016/2017, started with only two local managers which were Khalifa al Muzahimi with Al Nahdha and Waleed al Sadi, who is presently the assistant manager of Oman national team. It ended with around 10 local managers out of the 14 clubs participated in the campaign.
Most of the local managers, who were appointed to replace the foreign managers, have helped their clubs. Khalifa Al Muzahimi, who was the only manager to stay in one team for the whole season, won the Mazda Cup with Al Nahdha. Waleed al Sadi ended the first OPL part on the top spot before he left to join Oman national team as an assistant of Pim Verbeek.
Suliman Khamis, who won OPL with Fanja last year; although he took charge just three rounds before the end of the campaign, was appointed in the second part of the season as Fanja manager and he led the team from ninth place to fifth place. Ibrahim Sumar and Mosin Darwish also helped their teams Oman club and Muscat respectively to stay in the OPL next season.
In the First Division League, Al Mudhaibi, Al Salam and Mirbat all were promoted to OPL with local managers. Anwer al Habsi played a very critical role to help Al Mudhaibi move to OPL for the first time. Ubaid Khamis and Akram Habrish also helped their teams Al Salam and Mirbat to return to OPL.
Oman Daily Observer has taken views of some football pundits about the performance of local managers by the end of the football season and the lack of trust that local managers face by club managements every year.
Khamis al Bulushi, football media anchor said that ‘’local managers are a brand that is often used in the hard circumstances.’’
“If we go back to OPL, it started with only two local managers: Khalifa al Muzahimi (Al Nahdha) and Waleed al Sadi (Al Shabab), But towards the end of the campaign we saw around nine local managers.’’
‘’Overall, I think it was a good season for the local managers, as most of them made a positive impact on their clubs.’’
‘’Salim Sultan finished as second runner-up of OPL with Al Shabab, while Mohsin Darwish and Ibrahim Sumar saved their clubs Muscat and Oman Clubs respectively from relegation.
Suliman Khamis also was able to transfer Fanja from being in the bottom of the list to the fifth place. The same
happened with Mohammed Khaseeb (Sohar), Khalifa al Muzahimi (Al Nahdha) and Yaqoob Ismaeil (Saham), all did a good job.’’
‘’It is an ongoing issue that continues every year. Local managers are untrusted in the beginning of the season till they become the saviours in crisis and prove their capabilities. I don’t think this kind of strategy will be changed any soon; although, what Waleed al Sadi, Salim Sultan and Khalifa al Mazahimi did, deserves to be considered as a trustworthy trail of our local managers..’’
Hilal al Mukhaini, football pundit saw that the club managements still do not trust the local managers.
‘’Until now, local managers do not have enough trust from club managements.’’ Hilal al Mukhaini said.
Al Mukhaini has two main reasons for that. “The local managers did not show their real value in front of the club managements as they disregard their most basic rights and they always did not mind to work in double tasks.’’
‘’The second reason is the club managements unfortunately underestimate the local managers and do not trust them except in an emergency role when they face a crisis.’’
‘’ I hope that local managers work to build their brand and show their strong character so that they get respected in the football atmosphere.’’ Hilal al Mukhaini said. Abdullah al Bulushi, ex-footballer and a football agent said that: “The good participation of the local managers became very obvious from the early weeks of the OPL through Waleed al Sadi with Al Shabab and Khalifa al Muzahimi with Al Nahdha; however, I am not with classifying managers whether locals or foreigners.’’
‘’The overall appearance of the local managers this season was really interesting and most of the clubs who gave them a chance, had achieved their goals like Al Shabab, Al Nahdha, Fanja, Muscat, Oman club, and Sohar. Most of them became saviour managers when they took charge after the foreigner managers.’’
“I think some of the local managers have no clear methodology. I am sure they can develop it if they have the opportunity to manage the clubs before the start of the season as it happened with Waleed and Khalifa.’’
“By the end of this season, I think that, club managements started to consider the local managers and we will see many of them coaching OPL clubs next season.’’
By Jaber al Ajmi
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