For almost a decade, there has been a lack of access to formal football coaching education curricula in Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) must urgently address this significant crisis. The last time the SLFA hosted a CAF-accreted coaching course was in 2016, before the launch of the CAF Coaching Convention, which made it more difficult for member associations (MAs) to host CAF-accredited coaching courses.

In 2019, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) launched its coaching convention. The convention aims to standardize coaching education and licensing across Africa, ensuring consistent coaching quality. Member associations who wish to issue CAF A, B, C, or D coaching diplomas must design a syllabus for each category based on the guidelines provided in the convention and submit it to CAF for approval.

The SLFA has failed to create a syllabus that meets the convention’s standard and is the only English-speaking MA in West Africa that hasn’t formally trained coaches in recent years since the launching of the CAF Coaching Convention. The SLFA’s failure to design a syllabus that meets the CAF Coaching Convention standard has resulted in most coaches coaching in the top-tier leagues not having the appropriate training to coach at such a level. Some of those coaches are coaching the female and youth national teams.

Before launching the CAF Coaching Convention, over 50 coaches were issued CAF Licenses, and about two dozen coaches obtained the CAF A License. Many of those coaches have either died or are no longer actively coaching. The curriculum those coaches undergo to get their CAF Licenses has significantly improved since the launching of the CAF Coaching Convention in 2019. According to the coaching convention, CAF diploma holders must renew their licenses every two years by participating in a refresher course.

The active coaches in Sierra Leone who obtained CAF Diplomas in 2016 and earlier haven’t been able to renew their licenses as the SLFA hasn’t hosted a CAF Refresher course in recent years. If CAF enforces its coaching license requirement, our coaches cannot coach in CAF Club competitions. The CAF refresher requirements are similar to those of UEFA and US Soccer coach license holders, who must attend 15 hours of continuous professional development (CPD) every three years.

Recently, one of the world’s most successful coaches, Carlo Ancelotti, almost got his license suspended by the Italian Federation for delaying completing his CPD. In recent years, SLFA launched its branded SLFA B Diploma to compensate for the lack of access to the CAF Diplomas. Over the past three years, over 100 coaches have participated in two SLFA B diploma cohorts. The SLFA informed recipients of the course that they could coach second- and lower-level men’s and top-female leagues with the diploma. The issue with the SLFA B Diploma is that it doesn’t meet the standard of a B-level course.

The curriculum is, at best, an introduction to coaching or a grassroots-level D coaching curriculum that is insufficient to coach any team over the age of 13. This dilemma has resulted in an influx of untrained coaches in our football system, from the grassroots to the professional level. Coaches rely solely on their raw football knowledge, playing experience, and intuition to coach.

The Importance of Coaching Education

• Coaching education equips coaches with the foundations of the principles and phases of play.
• Coaching education equips coaches with the basic concepts to structure their training sessions with a session objective, linking each drill/activity with the session objective from the warm-up to the game.
• Coaching education equips coaches to periodize their training sessions and understand the workload during the various stages of the season, which limits the risk of injury.
• Coaching education equips coaches with the knowledge to plan and design practice sessions using the 5Ws (What, When, Where, Who, and Why), practice objectives, main and sub-principles, area of the field, key players, player actions, etc.
• Coaching education equips coaches with the tools to guide players at various ages and developmental stages.
• Coaches education equips coaches with the tools to design and implement a game model.

The above are just some of the key benefits of coaching education. There is also child protection, sexual abuse prevention, and safeguarding training that our coaches are lacking. This is very important to create a safe environment for children and women in football. Although coaching education is still very underdeveloped in almost all of Africa, Sierra Leone is far behind most African countries. The Gambian Football (GFF) currently hosts the CAF B Diploma course, while the Liberian Football Association (LFA) hosts the CAF A Diploma course. The GFF sponsored three coaches to participate in LFA’s ongoing CAF A Diploma course. Over the past few years, the LFA has hosted two cohorts of CAF B Licences and refresher courses. I find it difficult to understand why the SLFA hasn’t collaborated with the LFA in coaching education.

• Striving The Way Forward

The SLFA must address this matter urgently by hiring or collaborating with coaches and educators who can design syllabi that meet CAF Convention standards. The first step to developing a coaching education curriculum is knowing what you want to teach coaches. The SLFA must establish and publish a coaching education pathway, a national coaching methodology, and a football philosophy or DNA. Various SLFA technical officials have publicly claimed to have made significant progress in coaching education and stated publicly that the  SLFA has developed a coaching education pathway and player development strategic plan accessible to anyone who requests the documents. Unfortunately, my colleagues and I have reached out to those same officials for those documents with no success.

About the Author

Kendal Decker is a youth football coach and administrator based in Maryland, USA with 15 years of experience.

Summary of Coach Decker’s Coaching Education Accomplishments:

* UEFA A License Candidate (2026)

* MSc Performance Analysis in Football Candidate (2025)

* Barca Innovation Hub Professional Diploma in Football Tactical Analysis (2025)

* USSF Club Technical Leadership Level 1 Diploma (2024)

* USSF B License (2023)

* USC Premier Coaching Diploma (2016)

* USC Director of Coaching Diploma (2015)