FUTURO II - The FIFA/Coca-Cola Education Programme

Introduction to the Course Programme

A brief review of FUTURO 1

Between 1991 and 1995 a total of 136 courses were held in 125 countries, divided among the continental federations as follows:

Africa:	45
Asia:	42
South America:	10
North & Central America and Caribbean:	30
Oceania:	6
Europe:	3

In all there were about 11,000 participants in these training and development courses (80 per course; 25 each referees and technical personnel, and 15 each administrators and sports medical staff).

The choice of national associations to benefit from the courses and the selection of instructors were made in close collaboration with the continental federations. An encouraging note was the fact that not all the experts came from Europe and South America only. Especially in the sectors of administration and refereeing, and later in sports medicine, instructors were chosen from every continent. The former pupils now seem to have caught up with or even overtaken their teachers, if the recent successes of African and Asian (youth) teams are anything to go by.

FUTURO II - 1997 - 2000

In view of the existing needs of national associations and the success of the first series of "Futuro" courses, FIFA has decided to continue the programme in an updated form. Both the Coca-Cola Company and adidas (equipment suppliers) have agreed to continue to offer their valuable support. To this end, on 29 and 30 January 1996 there was an instructors' meeting in Zurich, attended by 30 experts from all the continental federations, so that their experiences in a variety of areas could be incorporated into the new project. Uniformity of training, communication between instructors and participants, and discussions within and between the four areas will continue to be the main points of focus. In the future, course programmes will be more flexible, in the sense that instructors will not have to stick rigidly to pre-determined topics but will be able to choose from a range of offerings provided by FIFA, in order to better meet the level of the participants and the needs of the national association concerned. The national associations themselves will be requested to indicate problem areas in advance so that these can be incorporated into the course programme. Plenary sessions in all four thematic areas will continue to be a feature of the programme. In addition instructors will switch between the different areas, so that perhaps a coach will instruct referees or a referee will give a talk to a group of coaches.

Aims

The aims were set as the following (among others):

to spread the enjoyment of football
to develop further dialogue between FIFA, the confederations and the national associations.
to promote the development of football at national and international level.
to train local experts and instructors, who would then be in a position to pass on their knowledge to others in their own country.
to increase cooperation and understanding between the four thematic areas.
to help national associations to become more independent.
to propose solutions for helping national associations to solve any problems that might arise.
to encourage the principles of fair play and ethics.

During, or at the end of a course, discussion should take place between the FIFA instructors and officials of the national association with the aim of taking a detailed look at the current situation in the country concerned and considering possible ways of improvement.

Participants

The total number of participants will be 90, divided between the four areas as follows:

coaching and refereeing:	25 each
administration and sports medicine:	20 each

The selection of participants remains the responsibility of the national association. However, in their own interests, the following guidelines should be followed closely:

Participants must work in the service of football (national association or club) both before and after the course.
There must be an even standard among participants. Selection criteria should therefore be set at a high level by the national association. FIFA instructors reserve the right to carry out suitability testing before a course begins and to make adjustments based on the results of these tests.
Every participant must appreciate the importance of such a course and participate in a serious manner.
Attention must be paid to the level of physical fitness for participants in coaches and referees' courses.
Participants must be available for the full duration of the course.
A list of participants (including information about qualifications, current and previous activities, age) must be sent to FIFA a month before the course begins.

Teaching Manual

In accordance with the wishes and needs of the organising national associations, the book provided can be used as a teaching manual after the course. Course instructors will therefore not follow exclusively themes contained in the book.

The ring-binder format makes it possible for participants to insert additional material of their own (lessons from other courses, press reports, etc.) at appropriate places.

The section with descriptions of the organisation withinhe confederations has been eliminated, ince the number of national association members changes from year to year. Thus there was no guarantee that this information would be up to date. The latest information about the organisation and composition of FIFA and the confederations can be found in the monthly FIFA News, and address lists are re-issued every year.

After the course

Every national association is obliged to provide the FIFA instructor with the name of one participant, or another person, per thematic area, who will be responsible for informing FIFA of developments in the areas of coaching, administration, sports medicine and refereeing on a half yearly basis.

A course can only be considered successful if the national association builds on the knowledge acquired, and the participants use their training for further development work. The careers of participants should be followed up, and information gathered about their progress on a regular basis.

FIFA is convinced that by continuing to work with national associations and taking note of their initiatives, the standard of world football will continue to rise. Many indications have been noted that prove this, and some of the former pupils have already caught up with or even overtaken their teachers.