Mission to Malawi

The Football Association has sent a team of coaches to Lesotho and Malawi to deliver an intense 10-day coaching workshop, aimed at preparing up to 50 students to take The FA’s International Coaching Licence Course in the future.
The FA’s Geoff Pike and Chris Dowhan will be leading the course in Lesotho while Andy Foster and Chris Whalley will work alongside Malawi’s national team coach Stephen Constantine, who took the job in Africa after a stint at League One side Millwall.

The students will be taken through a mixture of Level 2 and Level 3 coaching and theory sessions, aimed at improving the overall standard of coaching in both countries.

Pike and Dowhan will be assisted by two participants who attended this year’s International Coaching Licence Course at Lilleshall with a view to the principle of cascading coaching being established in Lesotho, one of The FA’s partners in the UEFA-CAF Meridian Project.

In Malawi, Constantine – who holds the UEFA ‘Pro’ Licence and is an FA Coach Educator and FIFA Coach Instructor - is well placed to join Foster and Whalley in the delivery of the coaching sessions.

Both countries are looking to improve their coaching infrastructures to enable them to develop their grassroots programmes as well as to have quality coaching for their elite teams which will be aiming to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

The FA has shown consistent support to Malawi and Lesotho under the auspices of the UEFA-CAF Meridian Project, providing the southern Africa nations with coaching, administration and refereeing courses in addition to kit donations and other resources.

“The FA has been a major source of support for the Football Association of Malawi and I for one am grateful for their assistance in developing football here,” said Constantine.

“I hope this course will enable me to identify coaches who show genuine promise and ability so that we can begin to put in place a long-term plan for the development of the grassroots game throughout Malawi.

“It is a small step towards what I hope will become an impressive picture of Malawian football in the future.”