Strict club licensing guidelines for African football are being enforced with new vigour this season in a bid to add a professional gloss to the continent’s showpiece club competitions.
It means higher standards for both the African Champions League and African Confederation Cup in terms of what the clubs participating are capable of achieving, plus ensuring facilities are at top level.
No longer, for example, are poor pitches and stadium facilities tolerated and, as an example, Lesotho’s champions Matlama host Coton Sport of Cameroon in the first leg of their Champions League first round tie at Bloemfontein’s Free State Stadium on Saturday because there are no suitable facilities in the mountain kingdom.
This is all to be encouraged and kudos to the Confederation of African Football for no longer accepting the mediocre; in the process forcing government and other state authorities to fix up rundown facilities for the betterment of the game.
But the rules on coaching requirements need examining. They are churlish. Coaches must have a CAF A license or PRO license from any of the other confederations to order to sit on the bench.
This means that Eric Tinkler cannot coach his team from the sidelines on Saturday when Cape Town City make their Champions League debut at home to AS Otoho d’Oyo.
Tinkler has a Uefa A license, which must, with all respect to CASF, be the equivalent, if not better than their A version given the significantly bigger resources that the European confederation has.
But CAF are looking to score petty political points by refusing to accept a Uefa A license. The only difference is it was issued by another confederation. It is certainly no inferior qualification.
To add to the absurdity, since the Covid-19 pandemic, CAF have barely offered any coaching course, so even if Tinkler desired a CAF A license, it would have been very tough over the last three year to get onto a course
The idea about licensing coaches is to avoid frauds and palookas siting in the bench for African club competition. That is understandable, although there are many legitimate coaches who don’t have qualification or badges, either because they haven’t had the time, or opportunity, or in the case of some very high-profile names, they have difficulty with pen and paper.
You will surprised by the names who have failed coaching courses because they cannot handle the classroom experience, and struggle with obvious learning disabilities.
It does not make them bad coaches, or frauds. This are considerations that CAF must incorporate into the rules. They should rise above the pettiness and recognise that forcing a coach like Tinkler to the sidelines is damaging the African game, rather than helping it.