Kalusha counsels coaches

Kalusha said this at City La Ville Lodge in Lusaka yesterday when he officiated at a 30-day Confederation of African Football (CAF)-A Coaches Licence course, the highest coaching qualification on the continent.

He said it was important that Zambia kept pace with Africa and the rest of the world by training coaches and developing the standards of the game.

Kalusha said improving football standards should start with the coaches since they were in direct contact with the players and giving them the right knowledge was one sure way to an all-round improvement .

“We at FAZ are always proud to be training you coaches because this is the only way we are going to keep you abreast with the modern football developments. It is also keeping up with the FIFA directives that coaches get high level training.

We have noticed that apart from Europe and the Americas, the rest of the continents were struggling in standards at international competitions like World Cups and coaching was one area identified that needed improving,” he said.

The course has attracted about 25 best cream of Zambian coaches like George ‘Chicken’ Lwandamina, Patrick Phiri and Beston Chambeshi with others on national duty like Masauso Mwale and Oswald Mutapa expected to join.

Other coaches have come from outside like Kelvin Kaindu, who is coach for Highlanders in Zimbabwe.

Kalusha thanked CAF for allowing Zambia to host a workshop of such a kind and also hailed the participants for staying on course by rising from Class C to Class B and now attempting Class A licence.

This is the first time that Zambia is hosting a course of such a high-level with Kalusha stating that his administration was not just proud of the strides being made but was committed to the development of football in Zambia.

FAZ for the first time hosted the CAF C Licence course in 2010 with the same group graduating to CAF B Licence two years later and not going for the CAF A licence.

FAZ technical director Honour Janza, who is himself a CAF licensed instructor, said coaches were an integral part of football development and that the association was ready to invest in that department.

And Lwandamina thanked the FAZ executive for finally looking at the need to train coaches and further pledged to ensure that standards of play improved further urging the association to continue training and retraining coaches at all levels.

Times of Zambia