'Coaching the coaches': Football's coach educators convene in Cyprus

Football fans know it’s the coach’s job to get the best out of players. But what about the less visible, but no less critical, role of coach educators – the select group of specialists who train Europe’s coaches to train.

“Coach educators may not occupy the footballing spotlight, but they are certainly key figures,” said UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, addressing December’s UEFA Coach Education Conference in Nicosia.

Europe's coach educators at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia©Sportsfile

“They play a crucial role in maintaining and further developing our game.”

UEFA works closely with coach educators to help them fulfil their duties in the service of the game: to raise the standards of European football through the coach’s chalkboard. Coaches with quality training are in a better position to produce quality players and, subsequently, put together quality teams.

Celebrating the UEFA Coaching Convention

The 2019 gathering in Cyprus proved the ideal moment to celebrate the achievements of a core component of European coaching and coach education activity – the UEFA Coaching Convention. 

The conference saw views and ideas exchanged on the future of coach education, as well as discussions on the impact of UEFA’s Coaching Convention©Sportsfile

Thanks to standards enshrined in the Convention, there are currently 190,000 coaches trained and qualified to UEFA standards, who are practicing their profession across Europe and beyond.

Click here to view UEFA’s Coaching Convention

The Convention, launched in 1998, has a variety of objectives:

• establish football coaching as a recognised, regulated profession;

• ensure availability of well-educated professional and amateur coaches, on- and off-the-field.

• guarantee the ongoing quality of football. The Convention clearly states that the technical level lies to a large extent in the hands of coaches with their primordial role in the development of players and the game itself.

Three-pointer for football coaches

By setting the standards for coach educators over the past two decades, the Convention has consistently delivered three-points for the coaching profession:

1. enhanced standards;

2. promoted credibility;

3. paved the way for the free movement of qualified coaches within Europe.