Most technical directors usually focus on the senior national team.
Not so with Brazilian Marcos Falopa who was introduced to the local media yesterday by his new employers, the Barbados Football Association (BFA), at the National Stadium.
The Brazilian’s emphasis will be on coaching the coaches in a series of seminars which will lead to certification of participants.
“Coaching at the club level is very important because they deal with players every day, so they will have a much better idea about their development than even the national coach who works with the players occasionally,” Falopa said.
The technical director, who is contracted for six months, will also be targeting the communities with his coaching programme.
“Some of the best players come from communities all over the world and the same could be true of Barbados,” he said.
Falopa, who’s very familiar with the region having visited here before and visited other countries including Jamaica, Cuba, Costa Rica and Mexico, pointed out that true development could only materialise when the youth got the basics right from the start.
His sentiments were endorsed by BFA president Randy Harris, who said his organisation wants to make an urgent and concerted effort to have more qualified coaches in the school system where there’s “a real dearth”.
Harris reiterated that the BFA was concerned about the development of coaches and saw the need to have things in place urgently to facilitate their growth and improvement.
“We want to have licensed coaches.We will start with the D licence and move all the way up to the top,” said Harris.
Falopa said that for his short stint he will focus on medium-term goals which he hopes will see incremental steps forward.
“I want to help your football. Your boys and girls are no different to children elsewhere; if we work hard we can get to the top.”
Harris said that at the end of the six-month period, the BFA would review its relationship with Falopa after his worked had been assessed.
It was also announced that by the end of October, the BFA’s administrative offices should be completed and open for business at its Wildey facility.
