Football: Confédération Africaine de Football (Caf) Coaches’ instructors’ Course Level A |20 February 2023

Souvenir photo of the coaches ‒ Vivian Both, Jim Louis, Ralph Jean-Louis and Osama Haroun ‒, Mr Mebratu, SFF vice-president Dolor Ernesta and SF chief executive Denis Rose (Photo: Roland Duval)

Four coaches’ instructors accredited with Caf Level A Licence

In its efforts to boost its capacity building plans, targeting everyone who contributes in one way or another in the daily running of local football, the sport’s local governing body has now four new coaches’ instructors holding Confédération Africaine de Football level ‘A’ licence, after successfully completing an intensive one-week training programme.

The training was also in line with Seychelles Football Federation’s (SFF) endeavour to be in compliance with the requirements and standards set by the Confédération Africaine de Football (Caf) for all member associations.

The training programme which consisted of both theoretical and practical sessions was being conducted by Caf elite instructor, Ethiopian Abraham Mebratu who is also a Fédération internationale de Football Association (Fifa) technical expert.

It took place at the Maison Football and the astro-turf pitch concurrently, and was also aimed at boosting the skills of the instructors in line with the SFF target to promote and boost local football, especially at grassroots level.

Again, this is in line with Fifa and Caf’s recommendations as part of the new football era, especially the new ways of doing things.

The course was also an opportunity to improve the capacity of local instructors and shape new ones who will be delivering different Caf coaching courses in line with the association’s new convention which is a document that ensures the quality of coach education in Africa.

The four newly accredited instructors are technical director (directeur technique national {DTN}) Osama Haroun, Ralph ‘Tiapout’ Jean-Louis who led Seychelles to their first and only gold medal at the Indian Ocean Islands Games (IOIG) in 2011 on home soil; Vivian Both who guided the national selection to win the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa Trophy in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2021; and Jim Louis.

They received their certificates from vice-president of the SFF Dolor Ernesta yesterday at the Maison Football, shortly after completing their training in the presence of chief executive Denis Rose.

Congratulating the instructors, Mr Ernesta reminded them that once they have any football licence, they cannot be left behind since training is a continuous process.

He said since sport is a science, this automatically makes football a science too, with a lot of evolution, while as a federation, the SFF has to keep abreast with all the recent development, especially when it comes to coaching, particularly the pedagogical aspect of the trade.

“You can be a very good coach, or instructor, but the most important part is how good you are able to impart the knowledge to fellow instructors and coaches,” said Mr Ernesta who further added that this remains the key element everywhere, and in all the process of football development.

He also thanked Mr Mebratu for imparting his technical, tactical and pedagogical knowledge to the local instructors

On his part, Mr Mebratu described the session as a very fruitful week, with the participants highly committed and disciplined, while the organisation was of high standard, with excellent classroom and field for practical sessions, making it an ideal and conducive environment to run the training.

He also thanked the young players who helped in running the training during the practical sessions, while urging players in the league, whom he said have huge potentials, to work harder and raise the standard of Seychelles’ football.

He also encouraged the new graduates to set up a local instructors’ panel, meeting at least once monthly to discuss, exchange ideas and share experience, making it easy to form a coach education panel.

On behalf of his colleagues, Osama Haroun thanked Mr Mebratu for sharing his knowledge, as well as his colleagues who took time off from work to attend the training.

This, he said, shows that there are committed individuals who are ready to move Seychelles’ football further.

IOIG gold medal winner as a coach, Jean-Louis described the training as a week full of education and imparting of loads of knowledge, while he is now eager to go and share his newly acquired skills with fellow instructors and coaches.

Roland Duval