Eguavoen tutore forty coaches as Nigeria's representative in the CAF Schools Championship emerges on Friday

 A total of 40 coaches are taking part in a six-day NFF D-License Coaching Course that began in the Federal Capital, Abuja, on Tuesday.

NFF Technical Director, Coach Augustine Eguavoen, explained that the D-License is a prerequisite for qualifying to take part in the C-License course, which is in modules and for beginners, and must last a minimum of 60 hours.

“Just as it is in life, everything in football is in stages. We have a lot of talented young ones out there, and it is not the way you coach adults that you coach the young ones. Coaching the young ones requires special training.

“This course is not going to be a one-off. After this national programme, we will have to take it to the Zones, and subsequently to the States. We have a total of 40 coaches undergoing this programme, and I can assure you they have a lot to learn.”

After the record-setting CAF C-License programme exclusively for women coaches that took place over July, August and September last year (three modules) and which involved 30 participants, the NFF organised a CAF B-License Course, which saw a total of 30 participants, in April this year.

There has also been a Coach Educators’ Course, which involved 25 participants, in July this year.

Elsewhere, Nigeria’s representatives to this year’s WAFU-B Schools Football Championship, a qualifying tournament for next year’s CAF African Schools Football Championship, will emerge on Friday, at the conclusion of the ongoing round-robin competition in Abuja.

Matches are being played at the FIFA Goal Project inside the MKO Abiola National Stadium and the Area 3 Football Pitch, with representative teams of the FCT, Adamawa, Gombe and Lagos States involved in the female category. The FCT, Kaduna, Delta, Enugu, Ekiti and Taraba States are represented in the male category.

The winning school in each category will fly Nigeria’s flag at the WAFU-B Schools Football Championship that will hold in Burkina Faso, 27th – 30th November. While the names of the winning schools will be adopted, players deemed to be exceptional from other schools will be co-opted to form a ‘Schools National Team.’

Successful schools at the WAFU-B tournament will join other qualifiers from the CECAFA (East & Central Africa), COSAFA (Southern Africa), UNAF (Northern Africa), UNIFFAC (Central Africa) and WAFU-A at next year’s CAF African Schools Football Championship.