Coaching game-changer

The recently concluded FIFA/Concacaf coach educators course will be a game-changer for Jamaica’s football, as it will significantly impact the growth of the local game, according to FIFA head of coaching and player development Branimir Ujevic and Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) technical committee chairman Rudolph Speid.

The five-day course, which came to an end at The AC Hotel by Marriot last Friday, had 18 participants from Concacaf member associations, and included nine Jamaicans.

Certified coaches from the course will now qualify to instruct ‘C’ licence courses locally, and Ujevic said these types of courses are in accordance with FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino’s vision of making the sport truly global.

“We are able to provide opportunities for the entire region, including collaboration with Concacaf to increase coaching standards and standards of coaching education in the region.

“Our goal and duty is to provide equal support for every federation, for people in charge of coaching education, and to improve those standards that football performance can be better in the future,” he said.

He pointed out that the resources FIFA has invested in the expertise of coaching globally show the importance of sharing best practices.

“The final product will be increasing the number of coaches and, consequently, increasing the quality. There is a space for improvement but we have not only passed on knowledge, we have learned what are the realities and the challenges in these environments. But, more importantly, how to deal with that and provide certain solutions,” he said.

He added that the next step is to certify educators to deliver the ‘B’ licence courses.

“We are in the middle of formalising the process of the world pathway with Concacaf and, very soon, we will come back with some exciting news, maybe at the beginning of next year,” Ujevic hinted.

Meanwhile, Speid said, as a nation, it is important to be able to teach ourselves instead of having experts from overseas all the time.

“We have more than 3,000 coaches in Jamaica but we only have 120 certified at the ‘C’ level. Now, we will be able to have multiple courses in one go.

“We are planning to have one in every confederation before December and, after that, we should have about 120 more ‘C’ coaches,” he said.

OVERSEAS EXPERTS

Currently, it costs $60,000 to do the ‘C’ licence, because the federation has to bring experts from overseas. Now, with its own educators, Speid said, it will be a lot less expensive.

“We have to bring experts from overseas and we have to accommodate them in hotels and book flights. But now the cost will be significantly reduced.

“Once, we also had to do the ‘C’ licence on a national level and now each parish can give their own ‘C’ licence.

“This will improve the amount of coaches and the quality. We are trying to achieve a consistent standard because we believe that better coaches make better players,” he said.

JFF president Michael Ricketts said this is a very positive development for coaching locally.

“I would want to think this will provide some kind of a catalyst for young coaches. The JFF has instituted a coaching regime where we reach out to coaches at the primary level to ensure that they have at least a ‘D’ licence, because we want to ensure that when these young kids get started they do so properly coached.

“We are just excited, and the FIFA persons that are here are also very excited at what they are seeing,” he said.

The Jamaican coaches who completed the course are Speid, Andrew Peart, Merron Gordon, Jermain Brown, Wendell Downswell, Xavier Gilbert, Lawrence Garriques, Marlon Hylton and Eric Rademakers.

The group also paid a visit to the MVP Track and Field Club where founder Stephen Francis shared his experiences with participants.

The course was overseen by Ujevic, FIFA’s senior coaching development manager Giovani Fernandes, and former England Under-17 and Manchester United consultant John Peacock.

livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com