Coaching's jewel in the crown
Wednesday 16 September 2020
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UEFA Direct’s coaching supplement The Technician celebrates 25 years of the UEFA Jira Panel – the body responsible for fostering and developing coaching and coach education across Europe.
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“One of UEFA’s hidden treasures” – the words used in The Technician to describe the Jira Panel, the European body’s group of respected European coaches and experts working on UEFA's behalf to help produce well-trained football coaches to nurture future generations of football players.
The panel’s 25th anniversary provides an ideal moment to pay a warm tribute to members past and present of a body whose wisdom, expertise and commitment have been crucial in the evolution not only of coaching and coach education, but also, in turn, the development of the beautiful game.
What is the Jira Panel?
The Jira Panel consists of experienced technicians and coach educators, many of whom have coached or played at the higher levels of the game.
It is named after renowned Czech player, coach and administrator Václav Jíra who, as chairman of UEFA’s Technical Committee in the early 1990s and ahead of his death in 1992, was the catalyst for the panel’s birth.
The panel advises UEFA, UEFA member associations, clubs or third parties on coach education matters, and monitors coaching and coach education work taking place in countries in all four corners of Europe.
Crucially, the panel also contributes to the application and implementation of the UEFA Coaching Convention, launched in 1998, and which now sees 190,000 coaches across Europe equipped to do their job with the crucial reference of a UEFA-endorsed coaching qualification.
A quarter-century of achievement
The Technician focuses on the road towards the panel’s birth, the visions behind the panel’s work, and the key milestones from a quarter-century of dedication and achievement in the service of European football’s well-being.