Lahore, 23 Feb : AFC C-Certificate Football Coaching Course 2009, under Pakistan Football Federation (PFF), commenced today afternoon at FIFA Football House, Lahore. PFF’s Director Operation Wing. Cmdr (R) Pervaiz Saeed Mir inaugurated the event. PFF Secretary General Muhammad Lt. Col. ® Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi was also present on this occasion.
“To strengthen club culture is in PFF President’s Faisal Saleh Hayat’s long-term planning and according to him coaches will play vital role in this regard. The 13-day Course under Iranian AFC Instructor Ali Akbar Pourmoslemi will enable the 23 participants to take this challenge. Before advent of Faisal Saleh Hayat, there were seldom any courses but now PFF managing courses after courses,” said Mir.
Akbar will run the Course until 7 March 2009. He is third Iranian to run such Course on Pakistan soil during past 20 months after Majid Jalali (June 2007) and Ardeshir Pournemat (December 2007). Following the opening ceremony, Ali Akbar introduced the participants coaching profession and Laws of the Game in Theory session while Practical Session was comprised of Warming up and ball feeling to improve movement and rhythm.
“At the moment, there are three levels of license courses issued to professional coaches – C, B and A levels of license. An introductory license course covering the basic rules, regulations, nutrition and issues relating to sports medicine has now been made mandatory to qualify for C license course by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). This introductory course is meant for sports teachers, national and state-level football players, coaches and others who are involved in the teaching and promotion of football in Pakistan'” said Lodhi who added that PFF chief approved Siddique Sheikh (Karachi), Arif Siddiqui (Lahore) and Bilal Ahmed Butt (Lahore) to assist Iranian.
Ali Akbar said : “Playing football, for most of us, is an easy sport. But to be aware of the technical aspects of the game is a different ball game altogether. Although the sport is gaining in popularity, the training infrastructure is woefully inadequate.”
Now the first step towards removing this anomaly is in the offing. As many as 23 candidates will undergo the course whose content include 4 sessions – comprising 2 practical sessions and 2 theory sessions. While the practical sessions will be held in morning and evening at Punjab Stadium, the theory classes are being arranged at Auditorium of FIFA Football House. The practical sessions included imparting of training on playing techniques and the theory classes focused on rules of the game through visual medium, sports medicine and dealing with injuries on the field, nutrition, among others things.
The 23 participants called from all over the country are :
Punjab (6) : Yasir Mehmood, Abdul Rehman, Mohsin Ejaz, Qamar Rizwan, Aamir Salim, Mukhtar Ali
Sindh (5): Ghulam Sarwar, Sheikh Shahid Munir, Ghulam Rasheed, Rashid Siddiqui, Syed Nasir Ali
NWFP (4) : Kamal Uddin, Shahzad Khan, Abdul Shakoor, Ismail Jan
Balochistan (2) : Aziz Ullah, Sikandar Ali
Islamabad (4) : Javed Ali Soomro, Nazakat Ali, Rasheed Ahmed, Malik Abdul Rasheed
WAPDA (1) : Ashfaq Ahmed
Army (1) : Muhammad Azhar