BFA embarks on aggressive coaching development

The Botswana Football Association's Technical Director, Tshepo Mphukuthi, is optimistic that the pursuit of CAF licences, particularly the CAF A licence, by local coaches will have a positive impact on Botswana football.

He praised the efforts of local match officials who are currently in the process of obtaining their CAF A licences by December of this year. Mphukuthi also encouraged all local coaches to take CAF licenses seriously as they are an important step in the development of their careers.

Mphukuthi revealed that an upcoming CAF C License course is planned, targeting women and women's football coaches, to take place from September 18th to October 30th, 2023. He also confirmed that the second edition of the CAF A Licence course is underway; it began on August 21st and will conclude on December 18th, 2023.

“This year alone, we have already completed CAF A and CAF C Licence courses. The CAF A Licences have already been issued to the coaches, and we are now waiting for the CAF B Licences to be issued. We have 23 CAF A Licence holders and the interest in pursuing these courses is extremely high, but the main challenge is that many coaches still need to complete their CAF B licence or are still in the process of gaining two years of experience before they can progress to the next course,” he said.

Mphukuthi stated that the process of developing a coaching staff is an on-going one, and that it is too soon to measure the effectiveness of the coaching education program. However, he noted that majority of the coaches who have won leagues across the regions and first division are recent graduates of the program (2022). This is a positive sign for the future of the program.

“We will measure the effectiveness of our coaching education program based on the number of footballing skills that our players acquire their behavior on and off the field, and the competitiveness of our competitions. These are the criteria by which we will judge the success of our program,” he noted.

Mphukuthi explained that all CAF member associations follow the same convention for coaching education, which standardizes the content that is delivered across the continent. While there may be differences in the methodology used, the core content is the same. This is why coaches from neighbouring countries often attend courses in Botswana.

“Botswana has its own coaching pathway, aligned with the CAF convention, to cater for a larger number of coaches in our regional structures while also preparing them for CAF courses. This arrangement gives us the opportunity to develop our own experts in the field of coach education. We will further develop these coaches into CAF/FIFA coach educators,” he said.

“These courses are expensive to administer, so coaches are expected to meet BFA halfway by paying the tuition fee. This helps to cover the costs of running the courses and ensures that we can continue to provide quality education for our coaches,” Mphukuthi added. In summary, Mphukuthi stated that the BFA has a well-developed coaching development program in place for aspiring coaches, starting from the D license and progressing to the A license.

Coaches can skip one or two levels depending on their age category and experience. Overall, the program is designed to provide quality education and support for coaches at all levels.

“In order for Botswana to improve its performance on the international stage, we need to invest heavily in both coach education and player development. It is my hope that every club registered with the BFA will have youth structures (at least U13, U15, and U17 development teams) with qualified and experienced coaches, who will participate in leagues across the country regardless of their gender. Only by investing in the next generation of players and coaches can we hope to achieve our goal of winning the AFCON,” he stated.