In January, the first in-person training session of the ‘Honduras PRO Licence 2022-2023 Work Plan’ was held at the facilities of the Honduran Football Federation (FENAFUTH) National Coaching School, with the support of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and FIFA. The aim of the project is to devise and develop the PRO Football Coaching Licence Course and PRO Train the Trainer Licence Course, with the advice of experts from the RFEF and FIFA via its Forward Programme, which has provided financial and technical support to help with the successful management and implementation of activities. Consequently, emphasis has been placed on promoting the development and augmentation of Honduras’ National Coaching School, which would enable Honduran football to elevate its level in the short and medium term. The desired end-result is 25 trained coaches with a PRO Licence, which will benefit the men’s top division, the country’s national teams and the women’s game.

During the January visit, Spanish delegates Paloma Vidal, Damia Estelrich Dol and Joseph Barcelo coordinated the development of in-person theory sessions and took part in observation sessions and technical discussions at various events across the country, including one on the pitch with the Lobos UPNFM reserve side, coached by Hector Castellen, who is part of the group taking part in the PRO Licence course. “The RFEF instructors’ first visit to Honduras has been really productive; the face-to-face interaction meant that the students were able to appreciate first-hand the quality and in-depth knowledge of the three Spanish educators,” said FENAFUTH Secretary General Jose Ernesto Mejia. “We’re very happy with and grateful to the RFEF and FIFA, which has, through its Forward programme, enabled us to implement these initiatives aimed at boosting development in our country.” National Coaching School Director Marco Antonio Garay Salgado added: “The Honduras PRO Licence has had a successful start, and some great progress has been made. This FENAFUTH initiative has been undertaken with the technical support of the RFER and the assistance of FIFA, driving forward the development of PRO Licence training for coaches, which will offer multiple benefits to football in Honduras.”

This groundbreaking visit is the result of intense planning work during the latter half of 2022, when the parameters of the project were set and the participating specialists from both member associations were designated. Subsequently, the organisational plan was approved and the curriculum map was reviewed. In November and December 2022, an online training session was held, during which the RFEF experts provided advice to Honduran National Coaching School representatives in the areas of training methodology, physical conditioning, psychopedagogy, biomedicine and general professional football training. Four more sessions – two online and two in-person – will be held in Honduras during the course of 2023, concluding with an assessment and a final face-to-face session in Spain in November. This is a continuation of a successful initial project, which was executed by the RFEF and FENAFUTH over the 2019-2021 period and was devised, fostered and efficiently coordinated by FIFA’s Member Association Americas subdivision. At that time, once the A Licence conferment process was determined, 24 Honduran instructors benefited from the knowledge of Spanish instructors in theory and practical sessions to obtain their badges. Both projects arose from the cooperation agreement signed by the associations, in accordance with The Vision 2020-2023, which emphasises the need to develop football on a global scale through collaboration, and which has borne fruit through the FIFA Forward Programme.

Israel Lopez i Ferrer, Director of the RFEF National Coaching School: “For us as a football body and specifically for the RFEF Training Department, being able to carry out joint training initiatives internationally – in this case with the Honduran Football Federation – under the umbrella of FIFA’s Development Department is always a wonderful opportunity to grow our sport and, most importantly, generate a dynamic where knowledge and experience is shared in both directions. “This first on-site visit in Honduras for the FENAFUTH PRO Course that both training departments are developing has generated an extensive exchange of information. We should highlight, in particular, the great willingness and rigorousness of the coaches taking part in the course to take new learning environments in their stride and implement the training models we’ve developed in Spain, in order to improve the clubs where they fulfil roles as head coaches or members of backroom staff.

“Training initiatives of this sort will have a direct impact, right from the outset, on the development and growth of football in Honduras via all of its youth football educators and instructors, and on, by extension, the Honduran Federation’s ongoing aim of improving its current crop of youth players, who represent the future of the game.” Derek Canavaggio, Development Coordinator for the FIFA Regional Office in Panama: “We are absolutely delighted to be involved in this initiative, which is being sponsored by the FIFA Forward Programme for a second time. This incarnation of the project will give rise to excellent growth and training for coaches in Honduras, and will inspire other associations to seek out similar agreements with their counterparts.”