Grassroots football in Zambia will benefit immensely after the staging of the 2018 Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) Under 20 Championship which concludes on the 14th of this month.

Cosafa conducted a three day coaching workshop in Kitwe, Zambia, where this year’s football tournament is being staged. The long term goal of Cosafa is to make it compulsory for all coaches at development level in the region to have minimum coaching qualifications.

By the time the two week tournament comes to an end, development coaches in Kitwe will be the biggest beneficiaries. Coaches from under-8 to under-23 level came in their numbers to attend a three day coaching workshop.

The workshop focused on many areas including basic factors of performance, long term player development, planning a daily training programme and technical drills for football.

“There are two roles that I normally play for Cosafa. One is to run a coaching workshop to empower the local people that work in the communities where the tournament is held. Two we do the technical study for Cosafa that determines the man of the match – we look at the stats and analysis for the entire tournament and we prepare a report for Cosafa and for CAF,” says Cosafa technical study group, Zunaid Mall.

Mall is a qualified Safa coaching instructor who also does a lot of work during the under-20 tournament. The 55-year-old instructor has vast experience in development coaching after working for Ajax Cape Town, and helping to establish the Transnet School of Excellence in the early 1990’s.

To elevate the standard of football in southern Africa, Cosafa is aiming to introduce compulsory coaching for developmental coaches.

“I think that is a very important step I won’t say a standard but at least we have a uniform approach in terms of coaching methodology and philosophy for our region. It will then give and empower people with proper licences to coach from junior level right up to senior level that will include the CAF B and CAF A for an example,” says Mall.

Mall will also assist in compiling a technical overview of the entire tournament based on all 19 matches.

The report will be submitted to Cosafa and later to member associations.