TCIFA Hosts The FIFA Advanced Beach Soccer Coaching Course
FIFA, as the World’s Governing Body for the sport of Football, provides a number of technical resources in supporting the growth and development of the various areas of football within its Member Associations. One example of this is by organizing educational courses for coaches, whilst donating equipment and material for the long-term development of football. The Turks & Caicos Islands Football Association (TCIFA) has seen the benefits of this first hand. In recognizing the importance of continuing the advancement of Beach Soccer, a variant of football played on beach-sand, TCIFA has in the past, hosted the FIFA facilitated Basic and Intermediate, Beach Coaching Course. The next step was the Advanced Beach Soccer course, which the TCIFA was fortunate to host under the auspices and guidance of FIFA from March 7-11, 2018.
The sport has taken the world by storm since being officially introduced by Beach Soccer Worldwide in the 1990’s, and sparked the interest of islanders like us, who pretty nearly live on the shores of the Caribbean waters. The Turks & Caicos Islands Men’s National Beach Soccer Team made its debut at the CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship, 2015, a FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Qualifier, in El Salvador.
Instructing the Advanced Course held at the TCIFA’s national Academy Beach Soccer Pitch,over the 5-day period, was UEFA Pro Football Licensed coach, and author of the new FIFA Beach Soccer Coaching Manual, Angelo Schirinzi. Schirinzi, who coaches the Switzerland National Beach Soccer Team, has made over 19 appearances in the history of FIFA tournaments. He has participated also as a Coach in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2013 in Tahiti. There, he guided the Tahiti National Team. His 10-year instructing passage has brought him to regions like Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and CONCACAF member associations, where he has accomplished executing 30 courses, since 2008.
Education is of tremendous value to the association and its volunteers. As Beach Soccer sees a rapid increase in popularity, TCIFA encourages equipping its volunteers with latest coaching concepts and tools, building a quality coaching base, and promoting structured sessions with its players. This positive experience for coaches, and players alike, is also intended to serve as a recruitment drive, increasing the amount of persons interested in coaching, as TCIFA extends invitations for every educational course to its wider community, free of charge.
Sixteen Coaches, a mixture of established coaches, players and new comers, successfully completed the advance course, mastering a higher level of resourcefulness in the Beach Soccer arena.
Commenting on the Course, TCIFA President Sonia Fulford remarked that “the opportunity to equip our Volunteer Coaches with the educational and technical resources provided by these type of courses, will serve the objective of overall improving the program. Given our size and the accessibility to the sport of Beach Soccer in the TCI, it is one of the TCIFA’s objectives, to place attention to this area of football as we have the ability to excel at the international level. This FIFA course enables us to take a giant step in that direction”
