Spotlight on African Coaches: Part 2

By Peter Alegi | December 27th, 2011 | 1 Comment


Photo: Breakthrough Chiparamba girls football team, 20 July, 2011, Olympic Youth Development Center, Lusaka, Zambia. Courtesy of Hikabwa Chipande.

Training and Developing Coaches in Southern Africa: Licensing and Administration

By Hikabwa Decius Chipande

Football is the most popular sport in southern Africa but there are few qualified coaches at all levels. Prior to 2010 most top league clubs in southern Africa were coached by people without even a basic qualification.

One major problem is that Southern African countries have a haphazard approach to coach education. What had been happening until recently was that any person could come to the region, conduct a coaching course for a few days, and declare the participants as coaches with questionable certificates of limited value. It has been, therefore, very difficult to know the actual capabilities of local coaches and their qualifications because there had been no set benchmarks. South Africa is an exception in that it has the South African Qualification Authority (SAQA), although its effectiveness remains debatable.
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Talking Football in KwaZulu-Natal

By Peter Alegi | March 12th, 2010 | 3 Comments

Coaching youths in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal

Thabo Dladla is a highly committed youth coach and former professional player with AmaZulu FC. His weekly ‘Talking Football’ column in a Pietermaritzburg newspaper focuses on the game at the grassroots, not on the 2010 World Cup or the PSL. ‘There is something wrong when a country with over 48 million people and a huge football budget cannot produce good players,’ writes Dladla this week.

‘I still believe that our country has some of the best talent at U12 level but poor leadership is letting the youth down. We have too many politicians and sports leaders who are more interested in the benefits that can be gained for themselves, than the sport itself.

‘Post 2010 South African youth deserve better than what they are getting now. The transformation of football should be felt at the lowest of levels. We can no longer allow a situation where a few get fatter while the players continue to suffer.’