Technical drive in Turkey

The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) – with UEFA's full backing – is stepping up its coach education activities, and has launched its new Pro licence course, which features a number of former national team players as students.

The kick-off event in Antalya was attended by Turkey's national team manager and TFF football director Fatih Terim, as well as UEFA Jira panel member Peter Rudbæk and the head of UEFA football education services, Frank Ludolph. The TFF is investing heavily in coach education and other technical areas in a concerted drive to take the country's football forward in the coming years.

A vastly experienced coach at the highest levels, Terim is now at the vanguard of the movement to develop Turkey's coaches. He attended the course and gave a presentation which highlighted a number of best practice coaching examples. Coaches also need to manage players and handle various management issues, and Terim – who has been in charge at Galatasaray AŞ, ACF Fiorentina and AC Milan, among others – also gave the students invaluable advice on the leadership role that any coach must assume.

"My team and I are working countless hours to develop the game in Turkey," says Terim. "We have ambitious goals. We intend to make this passionate footballing nation proud of everything going on in the football domain… I want to see these elite Turkish coach candidates take important roles in the global football arena."

The Turkish students – who number 20 after being chosen by Terim and his team from some 150 candidates – will also be taken under UEFA's wing, when they attend the European body's coach education student exchange course in Nyon later this year. There, they will be given expert advice about issues such as crisis management, handling the media, coping with pressure and collecting a catalogue of experience that will stand a coach in good stead on his career path. Following this, the coaches have been invited to attend next year's UEFA European Under-21 Championship finals in the Czech Republic to complement their studies.

The TFF is ensuring that its coach education work and practices are in line with the UEFA Coaching Convention, which aims to protect the coaching profession and prepare the way for the free movement of qualified coaches within Europe in accordance with European law, while improving coaching standards at all levels.

Just as UEFA will help give the student coaches a comprehensive briefing on facets of a coach's life and work, the TFF course is also focusing on the wide palette of challenges that top-level coaches will have to confront in their job – from specialist technical and tactical training of a team and its components to the management of technical staff, effective communication, how a football club is structured, the coach/referee relationship and sports psychology.

The Turkish association is working on a number of technical education projects, and is clearly determined to give its football rock-solid structures and a bright future in this sector. The work being undertaken is a shining example of how a national association is showing great devotion to educating coaches in the right way – coaches who, in turn, will help produce well-trained footballers – thereby improving overall standards in domestic football, and making a contribution to the upgrading of the game's quality in Europe.