V. Urbonas: "More coaches, more quality - more football

2023-11-14 01:40 © lff.lt

Despite the end of the Lithuanian football competition season, this period is a real busy season for the Football Coaches Training Association (FTRA).

The association is currently focused on 3 essential activity areas. Currently, a survey of licensed coaches is being conducted, practical assistance is provided to coaches, and training plans for the next year are being planned.

FTRA President Valdas Urbonas, who has held this position since July 25 of this year, provided more details on the recent activities, planned future initiatives, and challenges in the field of coach training.

- FTRA initiated a survey of working coaches in Lithuania. What data do you expect to collect and what could they reveal about the current situation?

"We are conducting a survey of licensed coaches to better understand what we have today and establish the need for the future, as it is clear that we are facing a shortage of coaches because the number of children coming to attend training sessions continues to increase every year. Besides questions about infrastructure improvement, it is very important that football academies offer a quality training process, so specialists who understand the specifics of their work and are willing to take responsibility for their work are needed."

- Recently, there has been a lot of talk in Europe about the shortage of referees, but little attention has been paid to the importance of coaches in the football ecosystem and the problems of training new coaches. Where do you see gaps and measures that our football community should take?

"The association's credo is 'more coaches, more quality - more football', as aiming for an increase in the number of coaches, we cannot forget about the qualification of the coach, as, in my understanding, this is the most important factor determining the future prospects of Lithuanian football. We aim to become more familiar with the daily activities of academies, to evaluate the conditions in which work is currently being done, and what the association could contribute to empower coaches to carry out their professional activities.

For the second year, the Lithuanian Football Federation carries out the certification process of football academies, also oriented towards evaluating the sports activities of academies, with the aim of assisting academies in performing better quality work. We must all understand the importance of the role of the coach in the Lithuanian football ecosystem and especially emphasize the quality of the training of the young generation of coaches. The number of licensed coaches may be somewhat misleading, as some licensed coaches work as coaches, another part is responsible for the administrative work of academies, or perform the functions of technical directors, and a third group are coaches who, for various reasons, are no longer in football. First and foremost, we need to think about how to educate motivated specialists who want to connect their future with a football coaching profession, specialists who want to improve and be successful."

- What are your upcoming plans for conducting coach training courses?

"The association, in cooperation with the LFF technical department, will conduct licensed coach training courses in the coming years. We are discussing ways to improve the quality of training in the courses to better prepare coaches for their work. Next year, we plan to organize seminars to improve the qualification of coaches, and we want to invite lecturers from abroad to gain more diverse knowledge.

I would like to separately present the situation regarding the upcoming courses for each license:

UEFA A license - 24 students have already been selected. The training program includes 6 modules and an exam session, with courses expected to start in January of next year;

UEFA B license - from May, all those interested will be invited to register for courses, which are set to begin on August 20. The number of participants is 25 coaches;

UEFA C license - we plan to form 2 groups, in Kaunas and Klaipeda. It is planned to gather up to 50 coaches. The group in Kaunas would start training on January 30 of next year, while Klaipeda will start on September 3. I also want to inform you that UEFA B and C courses will be held in the Lithuanian language;

UEFA Goalkeeper Certificate - there are 2 modules planned, with studies starting in January."