The first ever and last CAF ‘A’ license coaching course in Nigeria was held in 2016. Before then, coaches have had the opportunity to secure CAF B and C licences-all credit to the NFF.
However, coaching education has since nosedived in to an oblivious state in Nigeria even in the face of the ever growing need to drive a vibrant industry that’s repleted with highly resourceful individuals.
For the umpteenth time, knowledge is at the centre of achieving a sustainable football ecosystem, and one wonder how such will be achieved with half-baked Coaches handling clubs and academies across the country.
As much as many would place premium on ‘years of experience’ in considering a top notch coach, such notion has been pushed to the lowest strung of criteria for reckoning as the game management continue to develop at the speed of light.
The approach to modern football has gone beyond the scope of how long one has stayed in the job, but what a gaffer can offer in tune with the latest trend of game which has now come to defy some of the age long practice of the dug-out business. The world evolves; we should too.
This is an age, where a match reader,video analyst, balance and conditioning trainer are needed to sit on the bench alongside an arrow head gaffer that is also expected to be vast in the understanding of their roles. At least, a bit of everything they do with and on his players.
Alas! we have little or no consideration for the importance and extent at which the standard rear it effects on the modern game. We continue to embrace an analogue approach which has seen Nigerian clubs and national teams struggling against their counterparts at the continental and international levels.
Much to the yawning gap that exists between our football system and that of the other clime, the reality of the significance of Coahing licenses dawned on us when CAF directed that only CAF A licensed-coach will be accepted as the Head of any team playing the continental games.
At the time of that directive, only few of Nigerian coaches handling the continental-bound teams can boast of CAF A license. As a matter of fact, clubs had to resort to appointing new Heads for their Technical department on the heels of the demand. Awful!.
Too low of us that we even allow coaches that doesn’t have the A license to manage our Premier league sides. A serious country won’t just do that.
In 2020, Enyimba FC, the most successful Nigeria football club had to ‘temporarily’ appoint Godwin Nosike as its Head Coach giving that their handler at the time didn’t have CAF A license as they competed in the Champions league.
Guess what, Nosike only had to seat in the dug-out and had his name appeared on the team list of the team given his qualifications. Little did he know about the team he was called to manage. Absurd!
As we speak, Kwara United, currently participating at the CAF Confederation Cup had to resort to the same method just to prosecute their CAF games. Not the worst anyway, they’ve got a precedent.
And the endless wait…
Many Nigerian coaches have paid the registration fee for CAF B license course since 2018. Yet, the course has not held despite all the money paid in to the coffers of NFF.
Over time, their plea has fell on deaf ears and some of them have also lost the courage to agitate for the needful as they fear the possibility of being victimised and the fact that they could be tagged as ‘rebels’ in the call for justice.
Emergence of ‘mushrooms’ coaching courses..
The failure of NFF to close the gap of Coaching Education in Nigeria has been taken over by some other independently run coaching courses.
In their own economic drive and idea to profit from the dire need of coaches in getting certifications, some of the organizations championing the courses have invented grades in the courses they offer. Wisdom.
That NFF continue to dissociate itself from some of the coaching progammes, those organizations has now found their root in delivering different certificates to their students.
While the concern is also about the content of their programmes, these certificates barely receive consideration from employers despite the investment of the holders.
The Nigerian Institute for Sports(NIS) is the only establishment recognized by the Nigerian law for the certification of Coaches, even though CAF licenses also remain at the core centre of rating and reckoning for gaffers.
By extension, those who seek to do any of the CAF courses are also expected to have passed through the rigours of the NIS. This requirement is often time jettisoned as some coaches go in to the courses without the background of the training at the Sport institution. The Nigerian way!
Not only that the people who clear applicants for those courses don’t give priority to NIS certificates, they have also created an avenue for ‘dick and Harry’ to join the course such that there’s no consideration of whether the person is a career coach or not.
Many are even of the belief that the reason why the CAF courses has not held over the years is due to the disregard for some its standing rules by the organisers.
We have seen the quick transition of Players in Europe becoming Managers few months after their active careers. The fact that we do not have the necessary plans for coaching education has made it difficult for some of our players to shift gear.
As long as the nonchalant attitude of the football authority towards coaching education still exist, our football will continue to suffer the best of Technical and Tactical approaches.
More to that, the quality of players we produce might never be at par with their colleagues in the event that their coaches do not have the requisite and modern knowledge of the game.
Of course, it will also remain difficult to define and design an identity for our football, if people managing the game are far behind in the language it currently speaks.
While it’s always easy to talk about the rot in our football system, one is morally bound to rule out a bright future for the game- even though it sounds unpatriotic.
For those who fail to plan, they say will plan to fail- so, more failures!
