Spier needs tips on anger management

On Wednesday, I happened to attend APR’s training session held at Kicukiro turf ahead of their Turbo King Football League match against AS Kigali played on Saturday. The unexpected hit me when club coach Andreas Spier insulted and threatened me over a story I had written ‘Spier primed to guide APR to silverware’.What started as any other simple conversation ended up with the Romania-Germany-raised coach calling me all sorts of names, claiming that I had wrongly stated his arrival in Rwanda and the nature of his contract with APR and even misspelled his name.He was furious that I had not indicated in the story that this was not his first contract with APR FC (because he was serving on a contract he had with APR academy), that I never mentioned that he trained over ‘1000 local coaches’ and even played a role in forming the U-17 team which took part in the 2011 Fifa U-17 World cup finals in Mexico.Though he still didn’t tell me the exact mistakes I had made in that story and how I could possibly correct them in my next piece, Spier wasn’t in the mood to even listen to my explanation other than showering me with all sorts of insults.It was too much, it left everyone around shocked. The good thing is that his bosses are aware of the ugly incidence and I hope it will be addressed in the best possible way.Well, I had never experienced anything like this in my eight-year career as a sports journalist despite being able to meet and write stories on high profile top sportsmen and women and even administrators.Nonetheless, I was still not surprised by Spier’s behavior because it was only one in a string of controversies he has been involved in since the first time he stepped on Rwandan soil in 2008.He has been involved in physical fights with opposition coaches, referees, officials of rival clubs, his assistant coaches not mentioning the way he openly criticises his own players.He has had quite some good confrontations both on pitch and off in the field, it’s on record that he has ‘beef’ with most local sports journalists in both print and broadcast. To me this is a war he cannot win because in any organised society like ours here, the ‘me against them’ mentality doesn’t work.I tried to let Spier know that just like any human being, I am liable to make a mistake because no one is perfect, including himself but he continued to insult and threatened me physically but he was held back by his assistants, and promised never talk to The New Times.Proverbs 20:3 says; avoiding a fight is a mark of honor. Only fools insist on quarreling, I let the APR coach enjoy his deeds and I hope he enjoyed his evening later that day.No one has ever insulted me in that way. It bothers me because in the execution of this profession, factual errors are made, but are never ill-intentioned like in the case of that particular story.What I believe, Spier, who according to reports is planning to request for Rwandan citizenship, this kind of conduct doesn’t suit well with Rwanda’s special values, which best make us who we are today.However much you may be an excellent coach when your discipline is wanting, then you will have problems to succeed in your career especially in places like Rwanda where we are trying to build football from the grassroots starting with very young players, who need proper and exemplary guidance.While the government is implementing the youth football policy, discipline should be paramount too because these youngsters are not only learning football but everything positive that goes with it.Coaches attacking journalists not a new thingMisconducts have not had positive effects on some coaches in the world of football. Recently, Portuguese coach Diamantino Miranda was expelled from Mozambique over insulting the integrity of the nation.Mozambique’s Labour Minister Helena Taipo expelled Miranda, the coach of the Costa do Sol club in the capital, Maputo, after he was recorded saying that Mozambicans were “a bunch of thieves” after he disputed a refereeing decision.Miranda’s remarks were made after Costa do Sol lost 1-2 to Vilanculos. His remarks were, “All here are thieves. You are all a bunch of thieves, you and other journalists can be bought off with a bowl of soup. This country is not serious,” he was recorded as saying.In 2011, The Slovak Football Association (SFZ) fined national team head coach Vladimir Weiss US$10,000 for “inappropriate and unprofessional behavior” at a press conference after Slovakia lost a Euro 2012 qualifier to Russia 1-0 in Zilina.“Weiss reacted inappropriately and unprofessionally to a legitimate question asked by a journalist from the futbalportal.sk website, and when leaving the press conference coarsely insulted the aforementioned journalist,”The journalist asked Weiss whether he was considering resigning after the botched qualifier. Instead of responding, Weiss went into a sulk and called the journalist a ‘f*cking bastard’ before storming out of the press conference.In 2009, Jose Mourinho while managing Inter Milan verbally abused a journalist after 1-1 draw with Atalanta.Spier needs to spend much of his efforts in finding a mechanism of ensuring that APR FC win a trophy this season other than thinking that he can actually succeed by confronting everyone around him who doesn’t share his opinion.

Sports

Spier needs tips on anger management