Corneal said coaches will get more training
By: Elwin Francis (Antigua Sun)
Friday December 15 2006
Former Trinidad & Tobago national player and coach Alvin Corneal said football coaches in Antigua & Barbuda will get more opportunities to improve their skills. Corneal, who is FIFA’s technical director for the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), is currently in Antigua conducting an Olympic solidarity football coaching course, which will conclude today.
Twenty two coaches from all across Antigua & Barbuda are currently participating in workshop, which is being hosted by the Antigua & Barbuda Football Association.
Corneal, who is also on the FIFA Technical Study Group Committee and a qualified FIFA coaching instructor, said at the end of the 11-day course which is sponsored by the International Olympic Committee and FIFA, more opportunities will be available for Antigua & Barbuda’s football coaches to improve their skills and knowledge of the game.
“The coaches can certainly get more opportunities to improve their skills. There are a lot of things that will allow them the opportunity to do it,” Corneal said. “The first thing is, if they get started like on this current course, their next one will be a FUTURO II course and then eventually a FUTURO III course depending on how quickly they develop.
“FIFA makes that decision based on our (coaching instructors) report as to where the standard is at this point in time, where they are likely to go and how long it will take them to sort of graduate to the next stage.
“It all depends on how much coaching these coaches would have done in their country with their clubs – some of them with their national teams and youth programmes – but it will be based on their participation.”
Meanwhile, Corneal said although he has seen only premier league match since he has been here to conduct the coaching clinic, it left him with a good impression as to the level of football in Antigua & Barbuda.
“I have only seen one game and that was a game last Sunday afternoon where two of the teams were playing at the police grounds. Other than that we have been doing the course. Actually, I have a good impression after what I saw on Sunday although it was only one match,” Corneal said.
“Maybe some of the times the players here get a little bit temporarily hot on the collar, but that’s the price of passion. I am also aware that there are a number of players from outside, especially from Jamaica.
“Some of the players I have seen are Jamaican, but the quality of the game was reasonably good. What I think is necessary is the continuity of trying to train hard, trying to understand the game a little bit more and trying to play at a more committed level.
“It seems to me that, like I watched the first half of the game, and the game was much quicker in the first half than it was in the second, which means that the fitness level would have been dropping.
“And they made more mistakes in the second half, which means that mentally and physically they were a little bit more deficient in the second half than they were in the first.
“That is something that could be improved with time and with proper coaching. That is the reason why we have the coaching course.”
