Information about UEFA coaching badges

[prof_raza]

I joined this forum some years ago and my first post was requesting for information about how to go about attaining coaching badges / license to become a qualified football coach.

I had spent years searching for information but it was really scarce to find on the internet. But then there were some FAs like the English FA and Scottish FA that provided some overviews.

Anyways, I was finally able to get the information after so many years and this July I also attended the UEFA C course in Scotland and I finally have a UEFA C certificate

So now to the important stuff. Note that the information I am providing pertains purely to the Scottish FA only and other FA's might have different routes / approaches / requirements / qualifications.

There are the following levels to become a professional football coach / manager. You can not skip any of the levels, and have to progress through each:

1. UEFA C certificate (Adult Club Coach Certificate) - 50 pounds
This is just a certificate that you get for showing up. The course runs for two days. The content of the course gives you an overview of some coaching aspects like passing and controlling, defending, shooting and finishing and pressure.
This course is run regionally throughout the year. You can check the dates of the course by going to the Scottish FA website. (http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_fo ... m?page=778)

The course equips you with an introduction to coaching. You get a handbook and DVD that provide some useful training references.
Just a warning, you are not yet a Mourinho or Rafa after this course. This is not even the tip of the tip of the iceberg, there is sooooo much more to learn.
Now that you have the foundation, it is advised that you coach a local youth team, something like U10s or U13s and get some coaching knowledge. This is very important to progress because you need to demonstrate the ability to coach children when you are applying for your UEFA B license.

2. UEFA B license
As mentioned earlier, it is good to have some working coaching knowledge before you apply for this course. The course is held only twice a year, once in June and once in October/November (which can be attended only by current / former football professionals). I am not an ex pro footballer, and I will have to attend the course that is conducted in June.
The course runs for two weeks if I remember correctly, and will be conducted at Largs.
This part is actually broken down into three parts:

2.a) Introductory (975 pounds)
This it the part where you attend the course for two weeks and they basically assess you whether you can actually apply for the UEFA B license or not. If they tell you to go ahead with the application, you do so, otherwise you try next year.

2.b) Two day tutorials (no idea on the fees, must be minimal though)
If your application is accepted (they enroll very limited number of students for the UEFA B license) you have (it is compulsory) to attend two tutorials (one in November and the second in May if I remember correctly, more info in the brochures on Scottish FA site). Note that you have to attend these conferences prior to your assessment.

2.c) Assessment (350 pounds)
The assessment is held in June, and lasts for a period of 4 days. You have to demonstrate coaching certain skills/themes and are also expected to structure a training and coaching module to specifically coach a certain skill/theme.
If you receive a positive assessment, you are awarded the UEFA B license. You can then rejoice because that is the entry level requirement for many professional coach openings.
If you receive a negative assessment, you have to start step 2 all over again.

3. UEFA A license
This is also structured the same way as the UEFA B and has the same 3 levels. The introductory course again lasts for two weeks and the assessment for 6 days. The topics assessed though differ a lot compared to those during the B license.
The fees for the introductory course is 975 pounds and the assessment will cost 650 pounds.
UEFA A license is the minimum requirement for coaching top premiere league clubs.

4. UEFA Pro license
This is needed if you want to coach national teams. Rumors are that it might be the minimum requirement for top leagues like the premiere league in the future. Not much information is available about the course content, structure or timings. All I know is that it is VERY VERY EXPENSIVE, estimates are around 3,000 pounds (!!!)

For UEFA B and A, do note that there is a gap of one year between the introductory course and the assessment.

The total financial commitment is around 6,000 pounds (UK). The time commitment though is a lot more. Even if you go through each level at the first attempt, it would take nearly 4-5 years to go from UEFA C certificate to UEFA A license.

Plus, after getting the UEFA A license, you have to attend refresher courses every 5 years or so.

Please remember that the Scottish FA does not run the UEFA C certificate regularly since they do not get enough applicants. I already had to face the despair of two cancelled courses during the last two years. Even the course that I was able to attend this year was run because at the last moment the course coordinator was able to arrange for some guys to attend the course.

Also note that there will be a time, especially until you get your UEFA A license, where you might have to work for free, zero compensation.

So that is all about the information. Now to some other stuff, like why did I choose the Scottish FA?
* Compared to the English FA, it is less time demanding. I am living in Kuwait, and travelling frequently to UK will set me back financially. The Scottish FA does not demand that much time. I am comfortable with 2-3 trips at the max in a year.
* Mourinho came to Largs for his UEFA B
* Shankly was Scottish, period

On a side note, just because you get the UEFA A license does not mean you are the football guru, even the UEFA Pro license would not help you do that. The courses just provide you with structure and reference, but may not necessarily force you to think like Rinus Michels. They do not teach you to be an effective / good coach. They give you knowledge, but may not make you a football encyclopedia like Rafa.

The ability to think football, link and relate the training methods to specific players requires a lot of art. Just take Sacchi for example, he evolved a system in his mind on how a team should play and then developed modules to train players to adapt and play according to the system.

As a coach, you also have to understand about the mentality of the player along with his technical skills and fitness requirement. You should also know how to develop them. You should know how to benchmark and improve your play, analyse your results, analyse the team improvements, and a whole lot more.

It is very important to develop players with the right mentality. Without it, the team will crumble and the system will not be adhered to. You also need to develop the players to have the same 'wavelength' mentality. It sounds so complicated, but if you think about it, it is pretty simple. As Shanks said, we just play simple football

I just hope that the above information helps others who are, like me, in a quest for football knowledge and qualifications.

[NewBornProdigy]

Dude that was amazingly helpful and informative
I don't even care about coaching... But reading that got me intrested and intrigued

Any aspiring coaches will find that information extremely useful (Even though there are only like 2 coaches on EF)
Top job man

[prof_raza]

Thanks. All I wanted to do is put up the information so that others do not have to hunt for it the same way I have had to. And trust me, you will start looking at matches in a different way when you start coaching or start learning about it. You do not look at them as a fan, but as an analyst Hope that does not put you off though

The motivation I have is that I want to teach kids all those things that I did not have the chance to learn as a kid myself. I want to take this to my country and develop it at the grass roots level.

I did carry out quite some research and had shortlisted USA, Australia, England and Scotland as the best possible destinations to attain the license. I know people will wonder why I left out Spain, Italy and Netherlands. The reason is because their courses do not necessarily run in English. Plus, there are some, like the Spanish FA for example, which requires you to attend the course for one full year for one particular badge!

The English courses are good on content, but if you are not residing in England, it will be difficult to complete the course. They expect you to attend meetings twice a month every two months or so. The Scottish course has good content, has a good reputation of decent managers coming through their course, and the weather in Scotland is superb

[ScottyBoy]

I agree totally. Scotland has a proud tradition of producing top class coaches and managers over the years and many of the good upcoming managers/coaches in the game are Scots. We also have a strong worldwide reputation for churning out waves of average players.

[Nat_H]

Thanks this is good information!

[tezz22]

I have read all comments posted here. I am fully aware that the SFA run very highly rated courses at largs for budding coaches to gain neccessary badges to try and progress, or just learn, some are more than happy with this. Touching on the Netherlands, they have their own academy that runs every summer, with only 25 places available and it is neccessary to speak english to attend. The thing is, they do not award a badge as they do in scotland, but it does look much better structured and organised. Included in the cost are a place to stay with 3 daily meals, something not organised in scotland, so you can pretty much double the £975 cost for the 2 week course for your b license.
The main question i need answered is if it is any better? Anyone know of anyone who has attended? I wont go in to it, but i am from scotland and there are plenty of negative reports about the SFA course in scotland that i have heard from many people.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[prof_raza]

This is just an update on the earlier post that I had done.

I had the opportunity to attend the SFA's introductory course for the UEFA B this May-June. In all, there were around 24 - 28 participants, iirc. The course was spread over 10 days. Here is the outline of the 10 days:

Day 1:
- SFA staff ran their demos of training sessions
- Gave outlines of what was expected from the training sessions
- We were assigned into groups of two. We were given a theme (defending / moving with the ball / shooting & finishing). The groups had to come up with their own training session that would include 3 components - 1. warmup 2. component 1 and 3. component 2

Day 2 to Day 10:
- The groups had to run the training sessions they prepared
- The groups of players that were part of the training would give their feedback to the SFA staff
- The SFA staff would give their thoughts, feedbacks, inputs to the group that ran the sessions

There were also lectures on fitness, nutrition, match analysis among other football related topics.

There was one session on goal keeping, and demos from other SFA staff.

All the participants had to take part in the training sessions - so if you are planning on attending the course, you must be in some shape to last atleast 3 hours of grueling training sessions

The instructors were fantastic. Their emphasis was always on getting us to think, be creative and be prepared. I can not describe in words how helpful the staff actually was. They would always push us to keep thinking and to keep coming up with solutions. They filled everyone with a drive to strive for excellence. I have no doubt that the success of the SFA is heavily because of its instructors as much as it is due to their content.

The two day tutorials are like a meeting point. At the end of the course, we were all assigned two topics that we have to prepare a small report on. These reports have to be submitted prior to the tutorial days. The tutorial days will include going over the submitted reports, and some refresh on the material discussed during the intro course.

BTW, there is no cost for attending the tutorials, it is part of the fee you pay for the introductory course.

To complete the assignment, it would be helpful if you are currently in a coaching role in some form or the other.

Hope this all helps.

Will be back with more feedback after the November tutorial.

In the meanwhile, am happy to answer any questions anybody might have.

[prof_raza]

In case you do not have a team to work with, they allow you to analyse any team of your choice - with the objective of highlighting any one strength / weakness and devising 4 sessions to capitalise / improve on them.

[ronniebiggs]

prof_raza this really was a super post, it's a bit old and perhaps slightly outdated now but still really useful, thanks!