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Inspiring a nation through football
“Success at national team level can inspire a nation,” explains April Heinrichs, former US Soccer Women’s Technical Director and current FIFA High Performance Specialist. “It can also inspire a region and actually an entire continent.”
Heinrichs points to the success of Morocco at the FIFA World Cup 2022™ as proof of the impact the game can have on a nation. “The success of the Moroccan men's national team at the last World Cup brought more kids into the game, both boys and girls. It will also have helped drive more interest in coaching and helped professionalisation of the game at all levels.”
Success at national level not only helps increase participation but also helps secure funding and provide momentum for strategic planning, says Heinrichs. “Success at national level helps Member Associations to move onto the next cycle of their strategic plan and also to raise their expectations of what can be achieved,” she explains. “As a result, they raise their planning processes and raise the resources given towards the game.”
Technical directors play a key role in ensuring success at national level by ensuring alignment of ideas and processes across all national teams. “Technical directors must understand alignment from the senior team down to the youth teams, even the youngest national teams,” explains Heinrichs. “Alignment of the philosophy, alignment on the positional roles of players, alignment of languages and processes.”
Working towards an ambitious vision
Technical directors have an opportunity to outline and work towards ambitious visions for the future of football in their country. For Japan, this vision includes winning the men’s edition of FIFA World Cup by 2050.
“By 2050 we’d like to be champion, but it is not easy,” explains Takeshi Ono, former Deputy Technical Director of the Japanese Football Association and FIFA Technical Leadership Expert. “When we declared this in 2005 everybody laughed,” he adds. “But steadily Japan football is gradually developing. At the last FIFA World Cup, we had some big performances and big achievements by the players.
“The most important thing is to never stay satisfied but always keep stepping up,” adds Ono. “We need to keep repeating the pledge of 2005 and that we will be champion by 2050. We need to keep saying it to make it come true.”
The most important thing is to never stay satisfied but always keep stepping up.
A key part of realising Japan’s vision for 2050 is implementing their national playing philosophy ‘Japan’s way’. Amateur football plays a key role in the plan, says Ono. “When we researched the countries that had won a World Cup, we found the ‘advanced’ football countries had lots of players playing. The country focused on making people happier through football,” he explains. “So, in ‘Japan’s way’ we have put a big weight on competitive football, but also ‘well-being’ football.
“There is now a reducing total population in Japan, especially in children,” he adds. “So, we must promote the kids coming to the pitch and not only for football, but just for healthy activity. We realised ‘football for everybody’ is a very important step towards our dream.”
Impacting the game at all levels
As outlined above, the role of technical director is not only to work with the national teams but also to grow that game at all levels. This is particularly important in Trinidad and Tobago, where the game is 90% amateur, explains the country’s former technical director and current FIFA Technical Leadership expert, Anton Corneal.
“I think one of the bigger opportunities as a technical director is to really grow the game,” explains Corneal. “In Trinidad and Tobago, 90% we are amateur in nature at all levels. So, we need to make sure our programme targets holistic development of the game and also gives the opportunity for people to play recreational football, which sometimes we don’t see as important.
“But all people need to play the game and I'm talking about not just youth players but adult players as well,” he adds. “They still need to play for fun and we need to provide that environment. I think it's important for technical directors to ensure that's part and parcel of what we do.”
Opportunity to support other members of staff
The success of a technical director is often the result of having an effective support staff. Helping colleagues in the technical department grow and develop is an opportunity for a technical director to share knowledge and ensure the medium to long-term success of the department.
Leaders who are developers like me should acquire further professional skills and knowledge to help other members of staff in order to draw out their potential.
“Developing each leader, sub-leader and staff member in the technical department will be more and more important in the future,” explains Ono. “By developing your staff it will help with motivation, especially the internal motivation of the people you work with.
“Leaders who are developers like me should acquire further professional skills and knowledge to help other members of staff in order to draw out their potential,” adds Ono. “That will help each individual to improve and together we can make big achievements. I think this will be very important for future leaders.”
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