The acting Liberia Football Association (LFA) president, Saye-Taayor Adolphus Dolo, has urged coaches to respect the chain of command.
Dolo who is the current Vice president of operation of the FA believes football, like all other professions, has a pyramid with someone at the top, who must make all the decisions.
He made the disclosure at the start of a CAF coaching ‘B’ diploma course at the LFA headquarters in Swankamore, Congo Town on July 3, 2023 with a promise to offer a fast-track computer course to enable coaches to effectively and efficiently do their work.
“One of the problems with our football is that everyone wants to be head coach and all of us can’t be head coach at the same time on a particular team. The LFA will arrange a computer course for those, who are interested. Technology has made its way into nearly every profession and computer knowledge can’t be overemphasized,” Dolo said.
LFA’s Secretary-General Kollie A. Dorko emphasis has been placed on education at all levels, including for coaches, medics and referees.
“We will continue to provide the opportunity for you to advance yourself. We want you to work hard because it is only through hard work that we can get success because we are concentrating now on youth football,” he explained.
“You will also have to find time to learn about technology. The CAF instructors that came to inspect the first ‘B’ diploma course identified technology as a challenge and they particularly referenced computer education,” Dorko revealed.
For his part, LFA technical director Henry Browne said the LFA is shouldering the US$14,000 needed to hold the course in three modules.
Browne disclosed that CAF has cautioned the LFA about reducing the standard of the course due to the low fees paid by the candidates pointing out, “We had to explain to CAF that the economic situation in Liberia can’t permit every candidate to pay the required fee they would want us to charge. That’s why the LFA is shouldering 86.6 percent while the candidates are paying 13.4 percent.”
“You will have to take every aspect of this course very seriously because CAF was highly pleased with the first course we conducted. The two inspectors CAF sent were pleased with the quality of the course, the environment it was held under, the facilitators and presentation of materials,” Browne explained.
He said the LFA will now set a high standard for the 2023/2024 Orange national league.
“We graduated 18 persons from the first course. We have 25 active coaches. And we are training 25 persons. This means we will have 68 persons with ‘B’ License at the end of the course to coach 42 teams [excluding those with ‘A’ License].
“So we will raise the level of coaching in the league because only those with ‘B’ License and above will coach. You should see yourself as a challenge to those with ‘A’ License,” Browne added.
Module one runs from July 3-10, 2023 while the next two modules are expected to take place in September and October respectively.
