Dutch FA holds workshops to honour Madiba centenary
The Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) will be running coaching workshops in South Africa as part of the Nelson Mandela Centenary celebrations.
The workshops are being run in conjunction with the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The first workshop, where 25 coaches will be trained through the KNVB international programme, will take place from July 16-18 at the Nike training centre in Soweto. July 18, 2018 would have been the 100th birthday of Nelson Mandela, and will see a football festival involving 60 young players.
The coaches are selected by the Soweto Local Football Association, the Gauteng Department of Education and the South African Football Association. The coaches will all leave the course with a Safa D-Licence and a KNVB world coach’s certificate.
Among the participants are Banyana Banyana legend Amanda Dlamini, ex-Bafana Bafana captain Aarom Mokoena (right), while Zambian football legend Kalusha Bwalya and former Orlando Pirates coach and Bafana midfielder Eric Tinkler are also set to make guest appearances as WorldCoaches ambassadors.
Dutch maestro Johan Neeskens, who played for the Netherlands at the 1974 and 1978 Fifa World Cups, reaching the final on both occasions, and has since also coached Mamelodi Sundowns, will host the workshop.
After the Soweto workshop, there will be another in Pietermaritzburg, with another 50 coaches entering the programme in November.
Since 1997, the KNVB – along with local partners – has trained football coaches around the world, with a special focus on developing countries, using the “Coaching the Coaches” programme. “Coaching the coaches” helped develop football as a sport, but also strengthened the local community: first, by encouraging children and young adults to develop their talents and passions, then improving their future prospects. In the summer of 2009 the former “Coach the Coaches” setup evolved into the WorldCoaches programme. This is a new name with the same goal: to educate coaches who inspire the local youth, and the community, to develop.