With over 500 coaches on the local scene searching for employment avenues, the strict enforcement and compliance of the Club Licensing Regulations by the new leadership of the Ghana Football Association have come a massive value addition to the gaffers.

Having trained all these coaches between 2007 and 2017, the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) has, through the Ghana FA, certified 150 License ‘A’, over 250 License ‘B’ and over 400 License ‘C’ and Introductory coaches.

With Premier League clubs strictly limited to hiring only License A coaches, many coaches with the certificate are likely to get employed, while the 48 Division One clubs will make do with the License B and C coaches.

The Club Licensing Board, headed by Dr. Kwame Baah Nuakoh, has strictly announced that a minimum of License A and C will be allowed to handle Premier and Division One clubs respectively.

Premier clubs will have a minimum of a License B manager as their deputy coach while Division One clubs can have a minimum of a License C as a head coach.

The new board has indicated that it will not countenance certain practices in the league and have insisted the all coaches for the Premier League sides must be CAF License A trained, and that will not be compromised.

With these orders and the clubs adherence, a lot of the coaches who have acquired the certificates but are unemployed have been handed great opportunities of being on the bench.

The Technical Director of the Ghana FA, Francis Oti Akenteng, has called on all clubs to have confidence in the coaches on the local scene as they possess the qualities and qualifications to coach clubs.

“We have to trust our local coaches because they’ve learnt a lot as the expatriate coaches,” he told footballmadeinghana.com

“We always blame coaches for poor results but there are a lot of factors that bring about poor results. Our clubs should have patience for our local coaches because they will deliver when given time to work,” he added.



The move is to ensure the Premier League clubs have the best qualified personnel to manage the technical departments of the clubs to lead the change the new leadership of the FA is looking for.

The enforcement of this regulation will be a huge blow to Asante Kotoko and Hearts of Oak whose managers are not License A holders.

Kotoko’s current manager Johnson Smith is not a CAF License A coach and his B License is not a requirement to enable him coach the Porcupine Warriors. He can only serve as an assistant.

This means Kotoko will have to dig for a new manager to be the head coach while Smith and Akakpo Patron return to their assistant roles.

For Hearts of Oak, the certificate of Kim Grant will be subjected to scrutiny at CAF for them to either permit him to coach the Phobians or decline.

For those with the AFC License A and the UEFA License A, they are duly qualified to handle Premier League sides in the country.

FootballMadeInGhana understands that not only Kotoko and Hearts will be suffering from the enforcement of the new regulation as Aduana Stars, King Faisal, Eleven Wonders and many others do not have License A coaches.

With the CLB not ready to soften their stands on the qualification of coaches for the Premier League, more License A coaches on the local scene with no jobs are likely to be offered new appointments soon.