By Mars G. Alison
To further develop football here in Cebu, the Cebu Football Association (CFA) has mapped out more seminars and courses for coaches and referees in line with the Philippine Football Federation’s (PFF) plan of allowing only licensed coaches to handle teams in the future.
Perhaps the most aspiring plan that the local football body has is the hosting here in the city of a National Coaching Course Certificate (NCCC) for Physical Education (P.E.) teachers from all over Cebu.
According to CFA general secretary Joey Herrera, the NCCC is like an introductory course for those who have plans of coaching a football team and thus they are prioritizing the P.E. teachers as they will be the ones who will most likely lead the formation of a football team in their respective schools.
The move will effectively uniformly spread the sport province-wide.
Aside from the NCCC, the CFA will also hold another Asian Football Confederation (AFC) C-License Coach Certificate Course.
Herrera said to be prioritized are those who have taken part in the NCCC which CFA held near the end of last year.
For this year, CFA is also planning to tap specialized coaching courses such as for goalkeeping coaches and fitness coaches.
The CFA also hopes to strengthen and improve its pool of referees by also planning a series of seminars and refreshers courses.
This is also in line with the PFF’s goal of having a specific role for those interested either as a referee or as a coach, which means that a person cannot be both a referee and a coach at the same time.
Rodney Orale, referees committee head of the CFA, said they are looking for new referees and at the same time elevate their existing referees to the appropriate categories according to the knowledge, skills and physical fitness that they have achieved.
There are four categories according to national levelling—1, 2, 3 and 4 for starters.
Presently, the CFA has 42 active referees with two already in the Catgeory 4 level—Archie Reyes and Wilford Sabella.
According to Orale, they have two more in Kurt Acre and Michael Culibra, however, they became inactive.
Orale said, however, that the two’s status can be restored if they join refreshers course and training.
For this year, Orale said they have many referees who are qualified to be endorsed to Category 1, however, the PFF is only offering a refresher course and training for Category 2.
“So our aim is to hold the Category 2 refresher and training and if they pass promote them all,” Orale said.
The CFA also has three assessors — Vincent Ramos and physical fitness instructors Robert Nicart and Allan Nunez.
Orale explained that starting this year, the CFA will be the one to assign the referees unlike before when organizers can choose who they want to referee for their tournaments.
This is done for consistency and which is also the reason why evaluation sheets are distributed to organizers to assess the referees’ performance in every match.
The CFA has earmarked the first quarter of the year for all the planned seminars, trainings and courses for both coaches and referees.
