Leemisa Thuseho
TWENTY-THREE coaches are undergoing a Confederation of African Football (CAF) A Licence Coaching Course organised by the Lesotho Football Association (LeFA).
The course started on Monday at Bambatha Tšita Sport Arena.
Former Bantu coach, South African James Madidilane, is the only foreign trainee.
The course is being run by local instructors; Pule Khojane and Naleli Tšilo.
LeFA coach education officer, Lehlohonolo Thotanyana, said the course would take 30 days.
“The 30 days will be equally divided into three batches,” Thotanayana said.
“In between the batches, there will be four weeks’ internships where coaches will be deployed to teams to do some practicals.”
This is the first CAF A Licence course since 2016, and Thotanyana said the reason behind the long break was that CAF was still reviewing the syllabus.
Thotanyana said there was a huge shortage of CAF A Licence holders in Lesotho. There were currently less than 30 Licence A holders as some had either now retired or were now deceased, he said.
“We could have gone for other levels like D, C or B but there was a huge need for this course as the premier league is looking forward to moving the minimum requirement for team’s coaches from B to A Licence,” Thotanyana said.
The A Licence is the most valuable course offered by CAF and LeFA secretary general, Mokhosi Mohapi, said there was no way local football could prosper without qualified coaches.
“Our football is suffering due to lack of qualified coaches. It is not surprising that Matlama failed to progress to the group stage of the CAF Champions’ League recently because their coach (Molebatsi Mothobi) did not have an A Licence.
“Please go and serve football after this course. We have subsidised this course immensely as we wanted to invest in our football, so take it seriously. Be ready to go and show the world that you are indeed an A Licence graduate,” Mohapi told trainees.
He however, expressed disappointment that there were no women taking the course. He urged women to strive to compete on an equal platform with their male counterparts.
