A JFA instructor held a refresher training course for elite coaches in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates as a part of the partnership with the UAE football association, which started in 2013.

24 participants, including coaches in each category of the UAE football association, coaches from professional clubs and the other relevant people, joined the session hosted by Matsuda Hiroshi, the JFA national training centre coach. Through a five-day training course, he gave lectures and practical sessions about the principles of the JFA as an organisation, how they develop young players, who will contribute good results in the national team, and how they coach the instructors to deliver their development plans.

In light of the lessons learned from the result in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the participants observed and discussed the changes of the Japan National Team before and after the World Cup to see how they can develop in the future.

Participants’ comment

ABDULRAHMAN MOHAMAD ALHADDAD, the head coach of the U-12 UAE national team
I used to play for the UAE national team and experienced games against Japan. I’ve been always impressed with the hard work and politeness of Japanese players in every category. Youth development in this course interested me a lot. Especially, I thought ‘JFA Academy Elite Programme’ was really interesting. In the UAE, we don’t have a similar system, in which the participants live under one roof and learn about a lot of things, as well as about football. I understand how Japanese players learn everything they need to become professional international players. I’d like to bring back the ‘football notebook’ habit, in which young players take memos about the coach’s feedback and the analysis of their games.

BADIR AHMED ABDALLA SALEH ALHAMMADI, the head coach of the U-18 UAE national team
Through this training I realised that I need to communicate more with the clubs as a UAE football association national training centre coach. Japan analysed in detail the result of the World Cup in order to improve the team and each player understands what to do to achieve his or her next goal. This is how Japan gets stronger. Not just the football association, but each player in their club team faces the same direction. I also realised that we need to organise our annual schedule in a better way, so that we won’t miss any championships. I’d like to share our vision with the UAE football association and the club teams and develop our football together.