FC Mangalore Technical Director Biby Thomas was part of an elite group of coaches selected from across India to be moulded into Tutors for the AIFF E Certificate Coaching Course under the supervision of AIFF Head of Coach Education Savio Madeira. The six day course was conducted in Ella, Old Goa at the Dempo Sports Club Academy Complex.
A total of 22 candidates were hand-picked by the All India Football Federation based on their excellence in the field of Grassroots and Youth football. Another feather in the cap for FC Mangalore was that Head of Youth Development Shailesh Karkera was also part of the program as one of the Lead Coach Educators assigned with assessing and mentoring the candidates.
The coaches were trained by a team led by Savio Medeira (Head of Coach Education, AIFF) and Anju Turambekar (Technical Director, Dempo SC & Grassroots Panel Technical Head).
“It was a remarkable six days working alongside some of the top coaches in India and rubbing shoulders with some of the top professionals in Indian football like Savio Madeira, Anju Turambekar and Issac Doru. I feel truly humbled to have been selected and thank the AIFF for this wonderful opportunity of the AIFF Tutorship Program”
– Biby Thomas, Technical Director – FC Mangalore
Five AIFF E Lead Tutors, namely Mr Suhel Nair, Mr Shekhar Kerkar, Mr Shailesh Karkera, Mr Deepak CM and Mr Prashant J Singh assisted in imparting the course as well.
The programme was earlier known as the Grassroots Leader Course in 2013. But, after revision of the course content, it was revamped into the E Certificate course, the first batch of which was held in Arunachal Pradesh back in January 2020.
Savio Medeira, head of Coach Education, AIFF, said, “The E certificate Tutor course which began on the March 15 aims to develop more E Certificate Tutors to conduct E Certificate courses. Eligibility to be on the Tutor course is a C Certificate and (the person) has to attend an E Certificate course.”
