START EARLY!

The kingdom’s national team coach, Peter Taylor, is urging Bahrain Football Association (BFA) to kick-start the VIVA Premier League earlier in the sporting calendar in order to better prepare his players for future international tournaments.

The season normally starts in mid-September and ends in the third week of May. The top division involves 10 teams and nine play in a second division, with many fixtures in Riffa.

Currently, Riffa is leading the league with 33 points followed by defending champions Muharraq with 31 points.

Taylor, who had stated in a previous report that he wants to build the squad’s fitness levels and would like to add some younger players to the experienced mix, believes that the best way to do this is to push the start of the league forward to an earlier date. 

He said: “Players will start their pre-season around July which is normal all over the world and start playing friendly matches to help improve their match fitness and timing.

“Last season, I couldn’t see a player until December and by then we had already played in four qualifying matches so the teams we were up against were much fitter than us because they had been playing a lot more football.

“I’m sure it will help the clubs and coaches because players in training need games to stay focused. I know some started in July and never had a game to look forward to. This way clubs can organise ‘friendlies’ in August and September. 

“I’m looking for the league to start no later than September 20 and that gives all the players the chance to show what they can do. 

“We must try to improve our league. We have good, caring coaches and we have good talent and all of us must show the utmost respect to the game and each other.”

Taylor has also criticised the ‘stop-start’ antics of some of the players plying their trade in the VIVA Bahrain Premiership with some feigning serious injury and others kicking the ball out of play to allow them to receive unnecessary treatment.  

“Some of the games I’ve seen have far too many stoppages that are never going to encourage more support and enjoyment,” said Taylor. “In my opinion the majority of those stoppages are players making out they are more injured than they actually are and they do that to stop the opposing team from attacking. 

“In Europe now they only let the officials stop the game for a head injury, as people would have seen in the recent Champion’s League semi-final between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.

“We are only going to improve our league, fitness and performance by playing more without stoppages, so let’s all agree not to kick the ball out and leave it to the referee to stop it.”

The association couldn’t be happier with the former English Under-21 boss and Hull City coach’s current work. A spokesman said: “Taylor is one of the best coaches in Bahrain’s football history – certainly since the 1970s. He led Bahrain to winning the first GCC Games which is the first time Bahrain’s national team had ever won a regional competition. And after two months, he successfully led us to clinch football gold in the 2011 Arab Games in Doha.”

However, not everyone seems to be thrilled with the former Tottenham Hotspur winger who also managed Leicester City and Crystal Palace in the English Championship as he recently suffered criticism in the Arabic media which alleged he has stopped his assistant coach, Adnan Ebrahim, from working with struggling Al Ahli.

Ebrahim was asked by Al Ahli, whom he coached in 2009 and led to trophy-winning success, to coach them again. Ebrahim also coached Al Malkiya in 2010 and joined the national coaching team last year.

However, Taylor wanted to clarify his position and that of the BFA. He said: “This is exactly my point of the role of the federation and our consistent commitment to all clubs. 

“I told the federation we must be careful not to show favour to one club over another. If we were to help Al Ahli how fair would that have been to rivals such as Al Bahrain or East Riffa who are also fighting relegation? That is not what the federation should be doing. 

“I’m extremely unhappy with the comments suggesting that I’m stopping Ebrahim going to Al Ahli. 

“I am disappointed as there are decisions to be made here. The first one involves Ebrahim. Does he want to work for the federation or Al Ahli? The second decision is the club’s. If they want him to be their new coach put an offer on the table.”

Last Thursday evening Al Ahli’s hopes of retaining their VIVA Premier League status received another blow as they made it nine games without a win after a goalless draw with Al Bahrain. The club now sit two points adrift of East Riffa at the bottom of the table with four games left to play.

Taylor wants to create a competitive international team with a blend of young and experienced players. He said: “I want to produce more players that are ready to step into the senior side by grooming them in our Under-22 side and to introduce a B-team for players on the fringe.”