A coach’s leadership style is the approach he takes in everyday interactions with his players. This style affects every aspect of the team, from winning games to even the morale in the team.

The same also applies to any countries sports media how they react and report to football ardent fans is important in creating a condusive environment where players can play football effectively.

While different teams may require different leadership styles, bullying a coach to should not be one of them, especially by the media a case scenario is Ethiopia Walia Ibex where coach Yohannes Sahle who has barely been in charge for 6 months gets the flak from some but not all media personnel most of whom do not even understands the tenets of good football practices.

At soka25east.com we do not hold brief for anyone but as one of the most respected and recognized football portal in East And Central Africa we know what football entails having been covering the entire region now in our third year.

Ethiopian football fans are some of the best not only in the region but in Africa but unfortunately some media houses have put asunder between Walia Ibex,Coach Sahle and the fans causing untold suffering to most of the players who feel they are not appreciated and putting the coach in a hard place despite immense success in just a short time.

Ethiopia Walia Ibex finished third behind Uganda and Rwanda in the just concluded 38^th Cecafa Senior Challenge cup successfully hosted by Ethiopia that is a huge statement that any reasonable media personality who is focused on football development should take note about.

Coach Yohannes Sahle has given the youth a chance and who would have though a young player like Beneyam Belay who never played in the first team of his club would have been given an opportunity?

2 players played only 2 Ethiopian premier League games only 5 players had been in the national team before and because of injuries 2 players played only one game each Seyum Tesfaye and Seladin Bergecho as the starting goal keeper didn’t play and despite all that the coach Yohannes Sahle has been in the national team only six month.

Ethiopia Walia Ibex played to many games in different competition and in the Cecafa Senior Challenge they lost only one game against Rwanda in open play and as you saw they lost against eventual champions Uganda Cranes on penalties and no team scored more than one goal against that is indeed what a great team is made of and does not deserve unnecessary critism that does not add any value to the team perse.

It is so embarrassing asking a coach in a press conference why he does not leave the dugout instead of asking tactical and technical questions that can add the value to a football journalist reporting .

Sincere football journalists will realize and understand nothing is changed overnight….. Ethiopian Football is like the great Ethiopian Coffee ceremony its a process… not like nescafe quick fix!The media should give Yohannes Sahle and Walia Ibex  a sincere chance and join the bandwagon ahead of important CHAN 2016 games instead of being critical without using football facts they either ship in or ship out instead of giving the fans wrong information.

Yohannes Sahle is the right man to deliver Ethiopia to “Canaan” he should be given full support by the media,fans and federations because if he can achieve what he has done in just six months then what will he do in 2 years?

Soka25east.com is proud to be associated with Ethiopian football “የኢትዮጵያ ብሔራዊ ቡድን ከእስከዛሬዉ በቸሻለ መልኩ ከዩጋንዳ ብሔራዊ ቡድን ጋር ጥሩ ጨዋታ ተጫዉቶ በፔናሊቲ ተሸንፏል ደጋፊዊም በጨዋታው የተደሰተ ይመስለኛል ስለዚህ ድጋፋችንን በመስጠት ለ2016ቱ የቻን ዉድድር እንዲዘጋጅ እናበረታታቸዉ one love Ethiopia

Collins Okinyo

Ex- CAF Media Expert. An expert on African football with over 15 years experience ,always with an ear to the ground with indepth knowledge of the game. I have worked for top publications including 7 years at www.supersport.com until i founded www.soka25east.com to quench the thirst of football lovers across the continent. I have trained young upcoming journalists who are now a voice in African football.I have covered World Cup,AFCON,CHAN,Champions League,Confederations Cup,Cecafa,Cosafa,Wafu and many other football tournaments across the World. Founder Football Africa Arena(FAA),Founder www.afrisportdigital.com