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The UEFA Coaching Convention – staying ahead of the game

UEFA’s Coaching Convention continues to set new standards in the quest to develop better football coaches and improve the quality of their education – and, in turn, raise the overall quality of the game. With the new 2020 edition of the Convention now in force, UEFA Direct’s coaching supplement The Technician examines the reasons for its enduring success.

Jurgen Klopp has led Liverpool to success at home and on the European stage in recent years
Jurgen Klopp has led Liverpool to success at home and on the European stage in recent years UEFA via Getty Images

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Coaches are crucial to the development of football players and teams – which means that their education must be of the highest calibre. Through the years, UEFA has committed itself to the education and fostering of coaches as a priority feature within its ambitious and wide-ranging football development activities.

UEFA's Coaching Convention – now into its fourth edition – provides the framework in the drive to take the coaching profession forward.

The quest to improve

For more than two decades, UEFA's Coaching Convention has had a clear mission: Setting high coach education standards to improve the quality of coach education in all UEFA member associations, with the aim of developing better coaches and, ultimately, better players and the overall quality of the game.

Thanks to standards enshrined in the Convention, there are currently 190,000 coaches trained and qualified to UEFA requirements, who are practising their profession across Europe and beyond.

Vital priorities

The Convention, launched in 1998, lays down a number of essential priorities:

  • Helping UEFA fulfil its mission to develop football
  • Increasing the number of qualified male and female coaches
  • Establishing a European-wide, UEFA-endorsed coaching licence
  • Raising standards to meet ever greater demands on coaches
  • Introducing qualifications for goalkeeping, futsal and other specialist sectors
  • Ensuring common coaching standards across UEFA territory
  • Protecting footballers from unqualified coaches
  • Promoting freedom of movement – and sharing of knowledge
  • Giving status and credibility to the coaching profession
  • Giving meaning to a vital role

A major step forward

The fourth edition, issued earlier this year, has emerged from a rigorous revision process aimed, among other things, at enhancing standards of coaching courses; reinforcing the UEFA coaching pathway through the introduction of fresh components; and highlighting the coach educators' essential contribution in the drive for further progress.

The Technician examines the Convention's background and history, explains the new elements introduced into the 2020 edition, and emphasises why coaching experts see the latest edition as a major step forward for football's coaching sector.