Relief for coaches
Football coaches deemed less qualified have breathed a sigh of relief after the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) announced it will hold two CAF B licence coaching courses this year.
FAM technical development officer Benjamin Kumwenda yesterday said they target to produce 60 coaches with CAF B coaching licences during the courses scheduled for March and November.
The badge is the minimum qualification for coaching TNM Super League and junior national teams as per the Club Licensing requirements.
The absence of the course, since FAM made it mandatory in 2016 for elite league coaches to have at least the CAF B license, has been preventing over 70 CAF-C coaching licence holders, most of whom reputable coaches, from securing jobs at the top level. The lucky ones only make it as assistants.
The Flames assistant coach Lovemore Fazili, Be Forward Wanderers assistant coaches Oscar Kaunda and Albert Mpinganjira, Nyasa Big Bullets assistant coach Peter Mponda, Civil Sporting Club assistant coach Elia Kananji and Kamuzu Barracks assistant coach Temwa Msuku are some of the CAF-C Licence holders.
The course was postponed twice in 2018 as CAF developed a new syllabus following the introduction of the elite pro-coaching licence.
Mponda yesterday said the latest development will save them from ridicule in the domestic football circles.
“This will be a big relief for us because people have been talking a lot of rubbish just because we do not hold the CAF-B badge. After the course, we will be freely and peacefully performing our duties as coaches,” he said.
Msuku agreed with Mponda that the coming of the course will set them free from scorn and make them eligible to head top-flight league teams’ technical panels.
Meanwhile, FAM, in collaboration with the National Football Coaches Association is conducting a CAF B Coaching Course Manual development workshop in Blantyre ahead of the imminent coaching courses.
The workshop, which started on Tuesday and will end tomorrow, aims at coming up with a customised manual that Malawi will be using in educating coaches undergoing a CAF B course.
According to Kumwenda, it is now mandatory under the CAF convention for member associations to have a customised manual for CAF-certified coaching courses.
“CAF has stopped giving a one-size-fits-all syllabus as was the case in the past. Once the manual is done, we will communicate to CAF, who will then send an expert to assess and evaluate it before we start using it,” he said.
Kumwenda said the manual is expected to have both theoretical and practical topics, including team strategy, game analysis and basic football physiology.
Kumwenda, FAM technical director John Kaputa, Flames head coach MeckMwase, NCA chairperson Stuart Mbolembole and coach instructors Patrick Kulemeka and Eddington Ng’onamo make up the team that is developing the manual.
