FAM drills coaches in readiness for U-15 leagues
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has embarked on building capacity for stakeholders in readiness for the roll out of the Under-15 National Football League.
To set the ball rolling, FAM has organised a week-long coaching course which started on Monday in Lilongwe and has attracted 34 participants nationwide.
The association’s executive member Rashid Ntelera said the course is being funded by world football governing body Fifa.
“We proposed training for the coaches in anticipation for the league in all the districts. That proposal solicited funding from Fifa who also provided us resources and sent us a resource person to facilitate the course.
“The proposal also included training of referees and other stakeholders in the league,” he said.
Ntelera appealed to the participants to pay close attention to the course content to benefit from the Fifa expert.
“Undergoing a course is one thing and implementing what you have learnt is another thing. There is need for commitment and passion for what they are doing,” he said.
National Youth Football League president Chimango Munthali said the course will help develop the game.
“We want to ensure that the kids who are going to participate in the league are trained by people who know the basics of the game. We have been talking about the importance of saturating and we feel that with this course, we have an opportunity to saturate the game. It’s a big step when you train the youth,” he said.
Munthali said the league has been structured in the country’s four administrative regions—Central, South, Eastern and Northern.
“In total, we have 34 teams countrywide and for each team, we are training two coaches. As you are aware, there are 28 districts in the country, but urban areas will have two teams and Mzimba too, bringing the total to 34. The league is set to run from January to July,” said Munthali.
He said in total they are training 68 coaches with 34 gathered in Lilongwe and the other cohort of 34 in Blantyre.
