Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Football Association (Safa) has successfully produced a total of 72 coaches with D licence qualification and 390 grassroot coaches throughout the State within two years.
Its technical director Omar Maya Amat, who is a D licence coaching instructor, said the courses held in the various districts during that period were organised by Safa in collaboration with the National Football Development Programme (NFDP).
“The number of D licence coaches and grassroots coaches that we managed to produce is very important for the success of the football development programme in this State,” he said in a statement on Friday.
He added that 15 goalkeeping coaches in addition to 44 level one and 20 level two futsal coaches were also produced by Safa during the two-year period.
“We intend to produce more qualified coaches to ensure that the development programme can be implemented effectively including higher level courses such as the B licence, but we need to give priority to the D licence and the grassroots at this early stage,” he said.
He also said Safa has successfully organised many tournaments in the State over the past two years including the BMR Cup Under-18 football tournament, the Chief Minister’s Cup tournament, the Sabah national women’s football league and the U11 and U12 Samora Cup.
“We will continue with our programmes and activities to ensure the sport will keep growing so that more quality players can be produced in the future,” he added.
Meanwhile, Omar is also one of four grassroot coach instructors in the State appointed by Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) together with Andrew Weddy Majanggim, Hilary John Baptist and Petronella Downy.
