I'm currently reading Ichiro Ozawa's "Blueprint for a New Japan," his manifesto for giving the government and politicians of this country the kick up the backside they badly need.
In it he berates his former colleagues in the government and the Liberal Democratic Party for -- and here I'm paraphrasing -- being a bunch of useless tossers.
"We must establish political leadership," he writes. "We must ensure that the policy-making process is clear, and show our own citizens and the world who bears political responsibility, what they think, and what their larger visions are."
Perhaps the self-important "leaders" of the Japan Football Association should read the book. Ozawa points out how Japan's so-called leaders are completely useless in a crisis and fail to show any leadership at all.
Japanese soccer -- or, to be more precise, Japan's senior soccer team -- is in a crisis situation, but the president of the Japan Football Association Shunichiro Okano and his 3,000-odd vice presidents appear to be doing nothing to sort out the critical situation the national team finds itself in.
While officials of the JFA are falling over themselves to tell reporters that Japan manager Philippe Troussier is finished, the public at large -- not to mention Troussier himself -- is kept in the dark, in part because the JFA's president traveled to Switzerland to tell FIFA that he had nothing to tell them. Meanwhile, all hell was breaking loose in Japan following its 1-0 defeat to South Korea last Wednesday.
Doesn't Okano know a crisis when he sees one?
Probably not. In fact the JFA has been hiding behind the guise of democracy. The trick is to divide up responsibility within an organization (the JFA, the government) so that no one takes responsibility.
Hence, everyone within the JFA is saying Troussier is finished, but it's all off the record.
The official line is that an evaluation report on Troussier has been submitted to the JFA and a decision will be taken at an executive board meeting on May 25.
WHAT!?!
What do the JFA leaders think they are meant to be doing? That would be like an earthquake hitting Tokyo when the Diet was on vacation and the government waiting to do something until the next session of parliament.
The JFA's executive board should be meeting today and
making a decision today. Unlike an earthquake, it's not like it's a sudden or unpredictable emergency. The JFA has known this decision would have to be made this month and it shouldn't take long to sort things out. The Korea result and the subsequent rumor-mongering it has engendered has made it necessary to preempt the May 25 meeting.
But, hey, it's Golden Week. NOT FOR YOU LOT! Get off the golf course, have a meeting and make a decision! Now! Perhaps one of the decisions could be to find out where (or even who) your leader is. The second decision should be to fire anyone who has had a hand in choosing the last four Japan managers.
Like him or not as a manager, Troussier at least deserves to be spared a MONTH of speculation and finger-pointing. If he's going, have the decency to tell him now. If he's not, tell him now.
May 25? How stupid can you be. Japan has international matches in Morocco on June 4 and 6 and Kirin Cup matches (possibly against Wales and Nigeria) on June 11 and 18. If Troussier is fired, don't you think the new manager of Japan's team would like more than 10 days to prepare his squad?
I don't want to go over the entire Troussier debate again, but with his contract up at the end of June, why doesn't the JFA wait until those four matches in June to evaluate him?
As I've written before in these pages, Troussier's record with the senior team looks dismal, but for most of last year's matches the players he wanted to pick weren't available to him. It's only in the last two matches that he has been able to pick from almost a full squad and Japan's performances against China (0-0 draw) and South Korea (0-1) were much better than last year. Against South Korea, both sides had an average first half, but Japan played better than the Koreans in the second half only to lose to a fabulous goal from Ha Seok Ju. Japan actually outshot Korea 13-5 and had most of the possession. It could easily have gone the other way and it was not a critical defeat.
I'm not saying that I agree with all of Troussier's selections -- far from it -- but, in effect, he's being evaluated on two games, two games in which Japan has shown a vast improvement over last year. The JFA should know this and should give him the four June games to make an impression before a final evaluation shortly before the end of his contract.
Unfortunately, the press and some elements within the JFA -- most notably its voluble vice president Kunishige Kamamoto -- have been vociferous in their campaign to oust the Frenchman who they haven't forgiven for shouting at them when he first came here. As a result, the anti-Troussier forces have gained the upper hand. Let's see if there is any real debate in the JFA, and let's see some of it made public. The public does not want any more softly, softly press releases and delayed decisions. They want reasons and answers.
Finally, we come to the big "What if?" What if Troussier is sacked. JFA executive Kozo Kinomoto has been quoted as saying that Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is going to take over the team next summer and the JFA will appoint an interim manager in the meantime.
You have GOT TO BE JOKING! Wenger, you will remember, is the man who persuaded the JFA to throw all its principles out of the window and hire a manager (Troussier) who knew nothing about Japanese football. Certain stories have been floated that he will try to take a year's absence from Arsenal from June next year in order to take over the Japan team.
This is absurd. By that time Wenger won't have seen a J. League game for five years! He'll be in the same situation as Troussier (and Falcao before him) when he arrived here: He won't know the players. Some people think that Troussier still doesn't know them.
But it gets worse. J. League chairman Saburo Kawabuchi has gone on record as saying that the J. League won't start in 2002 until after the World Cup, so there won't be any domestic soccer from January to June. Apart from being a stupid decision in itself, it would mean Wenger would have just six months at the most to evaluate a new generation of Japanese soccer players. Sorry, it just can't be done.
Wenger would be a great choice as manager, but if he's coming, he's got to come now, and that's not very likely. About as likely as a manager willing to stand in as a dummy for a year. What message does that send to the players? Why are they going to listen to someone who they know will be superseded in a year's time? It's another stupendously stupid prospect.
There are several managers in Japan who would love to have a go at handling the national team, and they all have their plus points: Shimizu S-Pulse boss Steve Perryman (played for England at all levels, winner of second stage last year and Asian Cup Winners' Cup); Kashiwa Reysol's Akira Nishino (Olympic coach at Atlanta Olympics when Japan beat Brazil); Sanfrecce Hiroshima's Eddie Thompson (former coach of Australia and Australian Olympic team); and Ossie Ardiles (World Cup winner in 1978) of the Yokohama F. Marinos all spring to mind. They may not have a resume like Wenger's, but they KNOW JAPANESE SOCCER. They could pick a squad of 22 players TOMORROW and know exactly how they're going to play them. Surely these guys deserve a chance.
If Troussier is going to be sacked on May 25, they could start getting things together now instead of a few days before the June matches. If they don't work out, the Wenger option is still open in a year's time.
The stories and rumors floating around Troussier, Wenger and the Arsene Wenger fan club (sorry, I mean the JFA) verge on madness. It's time for the JFA to stop this madness now.