EXCLUSIVE: CAF official gives likely rollout date of Pro Licence in SA

This was revealed by CAF Director of Development Raul Chipenda in an exclusive interview with SABC Sport on the sidelines of a CAF elite goalkeeping instructors’ course held in Johannesburg this week. 

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Because of the delays in being accepted into the CAF Convention for CAF A and B licences, SAFA will have to wait in the queue for CAF Pro to arrive on local shores, but the good news is that SA coaches can enrol in other countries in the meantime. 

"Pro Licence maybe in three years again, because normally they have to organise courses for three years until they are allowed to do the Pro," explained Chipenda.

"They have to fulfil these three years, meaning that most probably in 2026 SAFA will do the Pro Licence if everything goes well.

"We have coaches from Cote d'Ivoire going to Morocco, we have coaches from Morocco and Egypt going to Tunisia, meaning that there's always a buffer of 10 percent – meaning three participants – that can come from abroad.

"And if you don't have enough participants in your country, you can even request to go to a higher number like five, and if everything, of course, is dealt with between federations, we will not say no.

"Because at the end, our goal is to have as many Pro Licenced coaches in Africa as possible."

South Africa’s most successful coach Pitso Mosimane is the country’s only coach to have obtained the badge during its pilot phase, but Chipenda reveals that three Pro Licence courses will be getting underway this month – in Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.

"But I have to tell you that Tunisia launched their Pro Licence, and Algeria will also launch their Pro Licence during the month of December, and Morocco will also launch their second edition of the Pro Licence in December," he revealed.

"This means now we'll have four Pro Licence courses to have been organised in Africa."

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Previously in Morocco, it was mainly the continent’s top coaches like Mosimane, Senegal national team coach Aliou Cisse, Al Hilal coach Florent Ibenge, and Egypt’s two-time AFCON-winner Hassan Shehata, along with a few locals who completed the Pro course. 

Chipenda explains why they started the programme this way.

"The first Pro Licence course was held in Morocco as a pilot one, for us to understand what was the best way to do it because in the beginning we didn't know if it would be regional, zonal or at national level," he explained.

"But once we understood how the convention would go, we understood that it must be at national level, but also with the possibility to invite foreigners to participate in these courses."