CAF need to do more for the game: Kalusha

do more to develop the game but revealed that the leadership was making headway in turning over a new leaf for the sport.
Bwalya, who is also the Football Association of Zambia president, is in Victoria Falls for the on-going Fifa seminar for general secretaries and chief executives from Eastern and Southern African countries.

Yesterday, the former Chipolopolo skipper and coach took to the podium to address the participants on Caf’s interaction with Fifa especially in development initiatives on the continent.
Caf have been lagging behind in supporting their member associations in developing the game with the continent being left with no choice but turn to Fifa for assistance.

But Bwalya, elected onto the Caf executive committee during elections held on the sidelines of the African Championships of Nations in Sudan in February, told the delegates that positive winds were sweeping across the continental body.

“We are looking at greater coordination and communication between Caf and Fifa for greater benefit of Caf national associations and it has been working so far,” Bwalya said.
“As a new leadership, we cannot change everything because of some traditions and culture but I can tell you that there is a determination by my president (Issa Hayatou) and everyone to leave a legacy.

“Caf’s image to the outside world has not been so good and we are trying to have a broader access to the media representatives on the continent and to be proactive.”
Bwalya also clarified the objective behind Caf’s introduction of the coaches C-Licensing and said the continental body would from next month also introduce their own club-licensing programme.

The former African Footballer of the Year challenged the chief executive officers to ensure that the game in their respective countries is protected from unqualified coaches, arguing that being a senior player for a club or country was not a passport for them to immediately plunge into coaching.

“In September Caf will be planning the way forward on the club licensing and that should start to be fully implemented by May 2012.
“The Caf coaching licensing system seeks to benchmark the operations of African coaches . . . a journey of a thousand miles starts with a few steps and with the Caf coaching licence we have started a journey to try and match such confederations like Uefa.

“In the past we had African players who had been playing for five to 10 years stop playing and just wake up tomorrow to become the club coach or even national coach. How is African football going to improve when it is in the hands of people who are not competent to be coaches, the senior players have to go through the coaching courses if they are to take over as coaches of their clubs or national teams one day?”

Bwalya told the participants that 2 088 coaches had taken part in the 54 Caf C-Licence courses held between May 2009 and August last year with three of the courses being held in Zimbabwe while Sudan had eight. He also spoke of the significance of the Caf education officers who are now being employed on a full-time basis by associations to help co-ordinate development projects and report to the Caf technical department.

Bwalya paid tribute to Fifa and Caf for the manner in which they have developed referees on the continent and revealed that the continental body was now focusing their energies on top referees whom he said should be mandated with handling big international assignments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

for national teams and inter-club competitions.
“Fifa under the framework of referees assistance programme and Caf under the framework of contract with Africa agree to organise refereeing courses with member associations whose primary objective is to improve performance and consistency of referees and assistant referees.
“Caf now want more competent referees handling matches and there will be review committees for the referees handling Under-17 or senior national teams or club international matches around the continent.
“We are lucky that in our region we have very competent people like Carlos Henriques and Felix Tangawarima who are doing a fantastic job to develop our referees,” Bwalya said.