Panaji: High-quality coaching is fundamental to strengthening the football environment.With this in mind, the governing body for world football started the FIFA Coach Educators’ Development Pathway for member associations to develop their own coach educators in the best possible way. Capacity-building, after all, is a key pillar for driving football development.Selected by FIFA’s technical development division, AIFF commenced the coach education programme for its member associations in 2022. On Tuesday, the federation concluded the four-day final module of the FIFA Coach Educator Development Pathway Project in Bengaluru.The project comprised a combination of e-learning, online and on-site modules, along with individual mentoring. The objective of this course was to provide continuous support for the development of coach educators and provide structured pathways for their professional growth.The final module was led by four AIFF coach educator experts — Sajid Dar, Shakti Chauhan, Shekhar Kerkar, and Parthasarathi Thulasi.It consisted of 16 participants, Altafuddin Ahmed Syed, Kundan Chandra, Pradhyum Reddy, Deepak CM, Derryl D’Souza, Dinesh Nair, Gumpe Rime, Jeddy Almeida, Joshuah Vaz, John Kenneth Raj, Mario Aguiar, Uttam Singh Negi, Prashant J Singh, Shafeeq Hassan Madathil, Shailesh Karkera, and Shakti Singh.As part of the programme, FIFA expert Oscar Gonsalves was appointed to support and guide the participants throughout the assessment process.AIFF’s head of coach development, Vivek Nagul, was also present in Bengaluru and provided his support as part of the programme.By developing home-grown coach educators, member associations, FIFA said, will improve the standard of coaching education, become self-supporting and maximise talent development. FIFA’s coaching development philosophy is football-driven, learner-centred, competence-based and context-dependent.
