20 | 21 National Sovereignty
The length of the course, depth of information, delivery mechanisms, support processes and assessment protocols are the preserve of the National Association and will be constructed within the UEFA guidelines to ensure that they are suitable for purpose in that country. It is why ‘football tourism’ is actively discouraged and longer term should ensure that all coaches working in England, can contribute effectively to the development of players within the English system.
There are two additional issues which may be affected by the national sovereignty of courses an individual coach chooses to access. These two issues are use of Training Credit Account funding and Tutor Training opportunities. For those coaches working at professional football clubs where the youth departments can access the Training Credit Account, it must be noted that no monies from this fund can be utilised to pay the specific courses outside of the jurisdiction of The Football Association (Welsh based clubs excepted). In respect of Tutor Training opportunities, The Football Association reserve the right to prioritise holders of English qualifications for these positions as they have had the greatest exposure to and development from the system and as such are best placed to advise and support subsequent cohorts of coaches.
1. Candidates must demonstrate that they are working at a level where the UEFA B Licence course content has relevance and that they have acted upon any advice within Level 2 Action Plan.
2. They must be able to operate within the session structures identified on the course on a consistent basis when coaching at their club.
3. Their players must be considered to be of a suitable technical / physical standard to undertake the work required.
Without the above, candidate coaches will not be able to establish and develop the competencies required in order to have a chance of passing the award and as such it would be disingenuous to accept them. Allied to these changes the new UEFA B Licence courses are now delivered through a centralised process with a reduced but up skilled tutor workforce and a level of provision more appropriate to the considered demand.
This increases the need to ensure that those candidates who are accepted have a realistic chance of achieving a positive outcome. When linked together, better candidate selection, better tutor delivery and better course content should combine to improve the quality of the coaching workforce at this level and their subsequent impact on the playing pool.
All change causes some disquiet and there is the potential that these recent adaptations will result in an increase in what UEFA term ‘Football tourism’. This is the desire of individual coaches to go outside of their own country of domicile to pursue qualifications elsewhere within UEFA jurisdiction. This is something UEFA actively discourage and as signatories to the UEFA Convention we look to abide by our obligations whenever possible as do the other member associations. In short, permission to attend should only be granted if the applicant lives, works or was born in the country to which they are applying for course enrolment. In line with these conditions, approval for transfer is only sanctioned by the candidates ‘home association’ where an applicant can prove that they meet one or more of the conditions identified above. If these conditions are not met and approval is not given, the candidate may still be accepted by the ‘hosting association’, the country where the course is to take place, if they so wish but this would be an exceptional occurrence.
What is not clear to many is that UEFA require the following conditions to be in place when accrediting any courses. 1. Meet minimum UEFA standards 2. Meet the demands of football at the prescribed level in that particular country. 3. Offer sufficient opportunities as meets established need within that country.
All UEFA accredited courses meet condition number one but conditions two and three have very different interpretations if you compare courses between the major powers and the emerging nations. As such, the only way to equip yourself to operate at UEFA B Licence level in England, is to take the course in England and the same applies to Germany, Italy, Denmark, Macedonia etc.
The final piece in this complex equation is EU Law. All EU citizens have general rights of freedom of movement and freedom of association (limited exceptions) and as such are free to apply to any member association of UEFA for coach education opportunities. The process of international transfer application must be followed and it is the ‘hosting association’, the association where the course is to be run, who determine acceptance or otherwise. They will review all available evidence as to candidate suitability and it is at this point that they will consider the comments on the transfer form provided by the candidates ‘home association’. In compliance with EU law and within the dictates of the UEFA Convention they are now empowered to accept or reject a candidate as they see fit.
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