At the end of last month, FA Coaches Ted Dale and Pete Sturgess travelled to Lesotho and will then move on to Botswana in South Africa, to coordinate an International Youth Coaching Course, run under the remit of the UEFA-CAF Meridian Project.
At the end of the course the delegates will have demonstrated how to assess the needs of individual players, how to develop an effective learning programme with agreed objectives, how to establish goals with the player to reach such objectives, how to monitor and profile progress and how to provide feedback and establish new objectives.
This is the first time The FA has conducted courses for Youth Coaches in Botswana and Lesotho, the programme hitherto having focused on referee development and administration assistance. Ranked 105 and 129 respectively, however, both countries are keen to develop their young players and identified this course as key to their technical development plans.
"We have worked closely with both countries – and also with Malawi - for 6 years now as part of England’s commitment to the UEFA-CAF Meridian Project", explained Head of International Relations, Jane Bateman. "Also this year we will be hosting two coaches and two referee instructors from each country on FA courses in England within the context of our ongoing assistance programme".
The UEFA-CAF Meridian Project was launched in 1996 by UEFA and its sister confederation in Africa, the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF), to assist the development of the game in Africa. Within this partnership programme, England is partnered with Botswana, Lesotho and Malawi.