Good coaches – good players

UEFA's desire to ensure that coaches are given the proper training highlights a 'snowball effect', whereby well-trained coaches will go on to nurture good players and teams and improve the quality of the game throughout Europe.

New experience and ideas
The 17th UEFA Course for Coach Educators takes place in Lisbon/Cascais, Portugal between 7 and 11 April. UEFA's national associations will be sending delegates to the conference in the form of an association staff coach/educator who is responsible for the training of coaches and who is in a position to disseminate information to coach education colleagues at the respective national levels. The delegates will return home with new experience and ideas that will not only contribute towards the education of student coaches, but will also keep qualified coaches up to date with what is happening on an overall European level.

'Improve the level'
The course will feature practical and theoretical work, as well as discussions. "Coach education is very important for UEFA," said the European body's technical director Andy Roxburgh. "If you educate good coaches, they in turn improve the level of football. So each country is enthusiastic about the training of its coaches."

Stimulating learning environment
UEFA's football development division holds a variety of events to assist the leaders of the European countries' educational programmes. "We bring them together on a regular basis," Roxburgh added. "The idea is for them to exchange ideas and to offer interesting sessions which will provoke further debate. We try to provide them with a stimulating learning environment."

Helping talents develop
Good coaches will help talented players develop. "There's always an argument as to whether good players are born, or whether they are made," Roxburgh explained. "The answer is probably a combination of both - if someone has a talent for playing the piano, the piano teacher helps to bring out the best of them and it's the same with footballers and their coaches."