handbook for Technical Directors

Role and responsibilities of the technical director / 1
9
1.3 The importance of a long-term development plan
As mentioned at the beginning of this
chapter, the technical director must
produce a long-term vision starting from
the reality of the football of the country.
This implies both a sense of purpose (reach
for the sky) and a very realistic approach
(feet well planted on the ground). It
also implies the understanding of all
interconnected variables that are related to
football development.
For instance, everybody knows that youth
football is an essential component for any
long-term development plan, because the
talented young players of today will be the
top players of tomorrow.
However, if we focus our attention on just
one youth league – for instance a U-17
competition – we will soon realise that this,
in itself, is not sufficient. To understand
it, one can simply answer the following
questions:
- Where will the players come from?
- Who will recruit and select them?
- Where will they play once they turn 18?
- Who will be in charge of coaching them?
- Are the coaches qualified?
- Are there sufficient instructors to
provide coaches with the right training?
- Are there clubs that can provide the
right framework for the players to
evolve in the ideal way?
- Who will ensure that there is no age
cheating?
These are just some of the many variables
that have to be taken into account when
developing the vision of the future and
that will help us understand the need to
build a competition’s structure that enables
the gradual development of the players
(U-15 and below, starting from grassroots)
and the possibility for them to evolve
towards the elite in a controlled
environment (U-19 and above).
A long-term development plan is therefore
an integrated set of activities that follow
a coherent approach and reinforce each
other over a long period. As we will see
in Parts 5-8, in order to achieve long-term
development, this handbook proposes a
methodology based on the project cycle
composed of four phases: analysis, strategy,
implementation and monitoring.
It is, however, important that during the
definition of priorities and the specific
approaches to be adopted, the technical
director always keeps in mind the complex
interplay of factors that constitute the
basis for football development. Like in
the solution of a puzzle, it is not only
important to put two pieces together,
but also to understand their place in the
general picture.
The graphical representation below is a
simplified description of the logical links
that exist between different football levels.
Senior
national team
Regional
competitions
Senior elite
competitions
U-20
national team
Community
football
Youth competitions
(various age categories)
U-17
national team
Referees
Grassroots (6-12 years)
Coaches
It takes all these pieces (and many more)
to achieve a coherent development
framework. The long-term development
plan will identify the way in which the
different steps can be achieved and be
mutually reinforced. For more information
on the strategic approach, please refer to
Part 6.