The Castle Lager Premier Soccer League’s least-learned coaches Lloyd Chitembwe of Caps, Harare City’s Moses Chunga and Taku Shariwa of Mutare City will be forced to enhance their qualifications following Zifa’s new regulations which demand at least a Caf A Coaching Licence or its equivalent.
BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA
Zifa technical director Taurai Mangwiro, who was appointed recently, released a statement yesterday detailing the new requirements which will be enforced at the beginning of the 2017 football season.
The Caf A licence is now the minimum requirement for the head coaches and their assistants.
While the majority of the coaches in the top-flight league have attained the Caf A licence, it has emerged that Chitembwe, Chunga and Shariwa still have Caf B licences.
The trio will have to enrol for the prerequisite course before the start of next term if they are to retain their jobs.
The first module for the Caf A licence will run from January 9 to January 23 with the second module scheduled from February 13 to 27.
“The Zimbabwe Football Association is moving towards standardising qualifications for local coaches at all levels starting from grassroots football [6-12-year-olds] through to national team level.
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“The move is meant to ensure that footballers produced in the country match international football standards and ultimately break into competitive leagues. At the commencement of the 2017 football season, all Premier Soccer League (PSL) head coaches and their assistants are obliged to be in possession of Caf A and local Level 4 (Advanced Level) licences.”
The new demands also apply to the national teams, but head coach Kalisto Pasuwa and his assistant Saul Chaminuka have attained the Caf A licence.
Zifa has already crafted a coaching course programme for the remainder of the year and early next year, which caters for those in need of the licences.
The first on the Caf licences calendar is the Caf C programme to be held in Gweru from October 24 to 7 November followed by a Caf B licence course in Bulawayo from November 14 to December 2.
Soccer Coaches’ Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general Newsome Mutema welcomed the new development, but implored Zifa to waiver the requirement for assistant coaches.
“As coaches, we welcome the new requirements because it is good for us to set high standards for our game,” he said.
“But in this case, the problem is that the requirements also affect assistant coaches. At the moment we have 41 coaches with Caf A licences, so it means they are not enough for the 16 Premier Soccer League teams considering that some of the coaches among the 41 are working outside the country. We probably have about 30 coaches currently in Zimbabwe who meet these requirements and some of them are with the national teams. What it means is we will not have enough assistant coaches who possess these qualifications, so I think Zifa should allow a lesser qualification for assistant coaches.”
Some of the assistant coaches that will have to go back to the classroom to enhance their qualifications include Dynamos’ Murape Murape.
Most clubs have at least two assistant coaches in their set-up and it’s expected there will be a huge demand for these courses come January.
While Chitembwe is one of the least-qualified coaches in the league, he has led Caps United well this season with the Green Machine pushing for the league title, sitting just a point behind Norman Mapeza’s FC Platinum.
