TFF president calls for more qualified coaches

Tanzania has only 24 qualified youth football coaches, the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) disclosed recently.

The soccer federation president Jamal Malinzi said there is more to be done so that the country can have many qualified youth football coaches who can train young players from the grassroots level.

He said for football in the country to develop and also to produce top notch players there is a need to have more qualified youth football coaches who can identify talents at a tender age.

“We must do something so that the country has more qualified youth football coaches, imagine a country like Madagascar has more than 250 qualified youth football coaches while our country has only 24, we should have qualified coaches at all corners of the country”, he said.

He also said due to lack of youth football coaches and proper youth structures the country has been unable to find consistent ways of winning.

“We always complain that our football is not developing at the pace we want and also we are not exporting many football players to top clubs in Europe and other parts of the world. But we forget that big teams world overlook for players who have gone through well established football academies and in the hands of qualified and competent coaches”, he said.

He said at development level the players are taught basics of the game like ball control, touching and shooting.
Lack of qualified youth football coaches is not only in Tanzania it is almost in all East African countries, the effect of this is that many talented players fail to play their football at top level and for career-long spells.