Rwanda to host FIFA Technical Directors Workshop

Kigali: A course for Technical Directors (TD) with the participation of General Secretaries (GS) will take place in Kigali City, Rwanda from November 25 – 30, 2019.

The five-day workshop which will be held at Lemigo Hotel in Kigali City will attract 14 technical directors from member associations including Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Comoros, Djibouti, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Morocco, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tanzania, and Zambia.

The General Secretaries who will attend this workshop are from 13 member associations include: Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tanzania, and Zambia.

Football is the core business of each member association. A strong technical director leading an efficient technical department with qualified staff and an excellent relationship with the association’s general secretary – combined with a strategy and long-term development plan – are among the most important factors in successful football development.

FIFA started an education programme for technical directors in 2016 and, since then, has organised 41 courses and workshops at different levels.

Since the beginning of 2019, general secretaries have also been invited to participate, allowing them to discuss, among other matters, the complementary roles the general secretary and technical director have in a federation and the importance of a close cooperation between the administrative and technical sectors.

Some of the technicians expected to conduct the course include: Jurg Nepfer (FIFA’s Head of Technical Development Services), Dominique Niyonzima (Regional Technical Consultant), former FERWAFA Technical Director and head coach of U-17 National team Richard Tardy who now acts as the FIFA’s Technical Expert, Carolina Wellington (FIFA’s Technical Development Coordinator), El Hadji Wack Diop (FIFA’s Regional Development Office for North and West Africa-Dakar) and Marie-Florence Mahwera (FIFA’s Regional Development Office for North, Central and East Africa-Addis Ababa).

The indispensability of a long-term development plan and efficient internal and external relations were among other topics discussed at the gathering.

The course in Rwanda is dedicated to member associations with new technical directors in their structures. The programme is based on five pillars, which are:

1. Practical sessions with the analysis of a game, a training session, a coaching education session;

2. Presentations by each technical director on his/her’s specific situation;

3. Elaboration of a project by each TD, with the objective that each TD takes the draft of a project back home;

4. Participation of general secretaries, who joined the course in the second half of the week to discuss communication and cooperation between those in the two positions

5. Bi-lateral meetings with each federation (GS and TD). (End)