SAFA and PSL to delay implementation of Coaching Standards requirement again?

This will go against SAFA National Executive Committee’s (NEC’s) decision from December last year, to implement coaching standards in all their competitions as from the 2024/2025 season. Jordaan says from the recent SAFA and PSL Joint Liaison Committee meeting that the issue of coaching standards was one of the key points of the agenda.

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''The coach sitting on the bench must know what is happening in the field in front of him, and that indicates that the coach must be qualified. This was the matter that was discussed at length at the last joint liaison meeting. We had a joint liaison meeting on two consecutive weekends, but in any case this question of requirement of a coach sitting on the bench must have qualifications that CAF accepts. We can not have a situation where the coach is sitting on the stand when the team is playing a key champions league match, that can not continue,'' said Jordaan.

With the first CAF A License coaching course since 2017 set to produce its graduates this week and another CAF B coaching license currently underway, the Premier Division will have more than 80 percent of its current coaches qualify to sit on the bench based on the proposed coaching standards. This demonstrates the clubs' and coaches' commitment to meeting the standards. However, according to Jordaan, the implementation of this won’t be coming anytime soon.

''When will we say this one can not sit on the bench because he doesn't have A License? I will have to check with the technical department because the congress took a decision on this matter. So that position is clear, it is just that there was a request from the league to say - can you find a gap in the season  so that we can make sure that they are compliant,'' added Jordaan.

Only two clubs in the Premier Division were to be affected by not having coaches eligible to sit on the bench from this past season, with either a CAF A or B License going to next season. A club like Chippa United sent its two coaches to do a CAF B license coaching course during the season, and Jordaan says the excuses of other clubs about the timing of these courses don’t hold.

Today also marked the opening of the CAF Club Licensing Online Platform (CLOP) workshop. All the PSL clubs from both divisions were in attendance, and the CAF Head of Professional Football, Muhammad Sidat, explained what CLOP is all about.