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Harare Bureau
ZIFA board member development John Phiri, is hopeful that the top coaches attending a Confederation of African Football A Licence in Harare will help their clubs to speed up implementation of the new club licensing regulations which the continental body want implemented by every member association.

Several top flight coaches and some foreign-based coaches such as Barry Daka, Madinda and Peter Ndlovu are attending the course which began at the Zifa Village on Monday.

Warriors legend, Phiri, in officially opening the course also paid tribute to Caf for trying to improve the standards of coaching on the continent through staging courses which build the capacities of the coaches.

“We believe the Caf A licence will go a long way in fulfilling the requirements of Club licensing. We are happy with the passion the governing body has shown so far in improving the quality of football in Zimbabwe through enhancing coaches in the top flight league and that the benefit will cascade to the national team passionately known as the Warriors, by a footballing nation of Zimbabwe who have been struggling to get their locomotive in motion in recent years,” Phiri said.

The course is being staged in two parts with the first stanza being conducted by Zifa High Performance committee member Gibson Homela, running until the July 13 before the participants take a break and which will see coaches back in their different bases practising concepts taught from the opening fortnight.

Another round of learning will start on August 4 with the coaches undergoing an examination to be conducted by foreign instructors.

The prestigious Caf A Coaching licence course which is the highest qualification for local coaches under the Caf licensing system in Africa, is undertaken by all those coaches who are holders of the Caf B Licence and this saw the cream of several Premiership coaches in possession of the licence in attendance to further their coaching qualifications.

Zimbabwe will join Zambia, Ghana, Sudan, Namibia and South Africa on the list of some of the countries that have held the Caf A Licence programme.

A number of coaches in Zimbabwe are eligible to take part in the course as they attained the Caf B licence held in 2012 in Harare with close to 40 coaches attending that coaching clinic.

Caf instructor Sunday Kayuni from Tanzania and former Zifa technical director Nelson Matongorere conducted the course.