Newly launched CAF Women’s Instructor Course successfully rolled out in Rabat

Following the recently concluded CAF Women’s Instructors Course, the CAF Coaching Division is proud to have launched a newly designed CAF Women’s Instructors course aimed at creating a pathway for coaching educators to become instructors and promote the growth of women’s football across all of CAF’s 54 Member Associations. 

The first rollout was conducted in the capital city of Morocco, Rabat, over an 8-Day training programme between 18 – 25 October at the King Mohamed VI Football Complex involving 19 instructors from 18 CAF Member Associations. 

With Africa enjoying a significant rise in popularity and strength of the women’s game, CAF is investing more recourses in supporting the growth of women’s football through refining and re-modeling its coaching education framework as part of its overall strategy of growing women’s football in Africa. 

The continuous development and innovation speaks back to the CAF Women’s Football Strategy which has the following objectives highlighted as key deliverables:

•       Accelerate the growth of the women’s game at all levels, all across Africa

• ·Make use of Zonal Unions and provide increased and improved training opportunities for technical staff involved in the women’s game

• ·Link capacity building courses to development programmes and competitions.

The enhanced  curriculum included both theoretical and practical sessions that covered a variety of football-related topics such as current football trends, physical fitness requirements of football, training programs for modern athletes, planning and assessment of coaching sessions, as well as the effective use of technology in coaching.

“Education is key in development. When our coach educators are empowered, they will be change agents in their respective countries and across the continent. It is worth mentioning that many of these instructors are currently leading their women's national teams as head coaches in competitions such as WAFCON, Olympic Qualifiers and Zonal Union tournaments.  Some serve as assistant or head coaches for youth women national teams, while others lead clubs in various top women's leagues and assist their respective technical divisions in course delivery” said CAF’s Head of Women’s Football, Ms Meskerem Goshime.

In just a few days’ time, CAF will be kicking off the third edition of the CAF Women’s Champions League in Cote d’Ivoire between 05 and 19 November – an exciting precursor to next year’s TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco 2024, another flagship women’s football competition by CAF. 

Also commenting on the successful rollout of the first edition, CAF’s Technical Expert on Women’s Football, Ms Jaqueline Shipanga said quality coaching forms the foundation of Africa doing well at international competitions, as witnessed in the recently concluded FIFA Women’s World Cup. 

“Education of our Instructors should not be underestimated as the foundation of developing the next generation of Asisat Oshoala and Thembi Kgatlana is vested in the quality of our Coach Education Programmes locally for our coaches. Simply put quality Instructors, produce quality coaches, quality coaches produce quality players and quality players produce better results. As witnessed at the recent Women’s World Cup were African Teams performed very well” said an elated Shipanga.