PSL to introduce coaching standards in 2024/25 season

The 2024/25 season will see head coaches required to hold at least a CAF B licence, with assistant coaches expected to have a C licence.

Head coaches with qualifications from outside of Africa are still expected to have a Pro License from sister confederations, such as a UEFA Pro License, for example.

The South African Football Association’s National Executive Committee had earlier approved that a CAF A licence must be the minimum for head coaches and CAF B licence for assistant coaches in both the Premier and National First Divisions.

However, the PSL’s move is seen as a step in the right direction, with more coaches across the country going for their B licences and another A licence course expected towards the end of 2024. 

A source with knowledge of the developments believes this move comes at the right time, with at least 95 percent of coaches in the PSL’s elite league already qualified to sit on the benches. 

“The PSL will soon make an announcement about it. They have proposed a B licence for head coaches and a C licence for assistant coaches – This is a good move and something I think SAFA will also welcome,” said the source. 

“You will remember there's also a CAF CLOP platform, which requires minimum standards to be included as part of the CAF club licensing regulations. 

“The PSL is on board, they will make their announcement at their own time. At long last, qualifications and standards will be coming through in the professional ranks.”

TS Galaxy President Tim Sukazi, who has long advocated for coaching qualification requirements in the PSL to elevate the game's standard through skilled coaching, also confirmed the implementation of these requirements. 

“As of this season, every coach who sits on that bench would be qualified to sit there. Not me coming from my chair at home, because I think I know and anyone and everyone can do it, no,” confirmed Sukazi.

“It will be a qualified coach who meets the standards set by our own football association, with the support of our own league. Whatever we came and advocated for, as TS Galaxy or myself, is yielding some good fruit for the benefit of the game.”

Over the past two months, SAFA have held CAF A and B coaching graduations, which were dominated by PSL coaches in both levels. 

In the Motsepe Foundation Championship, where some clubs are still coached by club owners, it’s expected the coaching standards could be introduced in the 2025/26 season. 

READ: Papi Zothwane impressed with knowledge from CAF B licence course