This summer, the latest cohorts on the Premier League’s inclusive coaching programmes embarked on their placements within the academies of Premier League and EFL clubs.
Leicester City’s assistant under-18s coach Eric Odhiambo has spoken about how his involvement in one of the schemes provided the perfect platform to develop his own coaching career.
The Professional Player to Coach Scheme (PPCS) is a joint programme between the Premier League, PFA and EFL designed to increase the number of black, South Asian and minority ethnic players moving from playing to coaching, including a 23-month placement at a professional club.
Odhiambo is one of 32 former players who have been part of the PPCS. He was part of the first cohort in 2020, when he was on a placement with the Coventry City Academy, and has reflected on the journey that has taken him back to the Foxes, where his playing days started.
“I initially got into coaching by helping out with my nephew’s grassroots team a year or 18 months after I finished playing,” he explained.
“I then coached soccer camps and got a bit of a buzz for it. I contacted one of my former clubs and they were nice enough to invite me in to be around the players. A couple of seasons later I came in on a part-time basis while I was going through my badges.
“I knew I wanted to coach, enjoyed being around players and the Professional Player to Coach Scheme became available and I wanted to get into full-time coaching. That opportunity came up and I jumped at the chance.
“It gave me enjoyment and upskilled me in loads of areas. It just helped me tap into skills I hadn’t used before and I came out better for all those experiences.”
Eric believes PPCS is the ideal grounding for coaches who have the desire to succeed in the professional game and points to the fact that all those who were involved in the scheme at the same time as him have progressed well.
“All of my cohort from PPCS had 23 months to prove what we could do. We’re way beyond that period now, and we are all in employment.
“It is one thing to be given the opportunity, but the next thing is for us to take that opportunity. We are gradually getting there [more diversity within coaching] and I think that has come through schemes such as PPCS, where people are making a conscious effort to make it happen.”
The Premier League's Head of Coaching Pathways, Osei Sankofa, works across the league's inclusive coaching programmes, which also includes the Coach Diversity and Inclusion Scheme (CIDS). Of the 81 coaches who have been involved in both programmes, 75 are in full-time employment within football.
“The Coach Inclusion and Diversity Scheme and the Professional Player to Coach Scheme offer intensive work placement and development opportunities for coaches from currently under-represented groups at clubs across the Premier League and EFL,” he explained.
“PPCS is focused on former players and CIDS is aimed more generally at coaches from under-represented backgrounds – you don’t have to have played the game professionally.
“PPCS has been a success – all of the coaches we have supported are working full-time in professional football and we are very proud of that. The collaboration we have had with the EFL and PFA to support us in delivering that programme has led to great success.
“The reason we have these programmes is to try and improve the figures in the long term. There are coaches who have been given more and more responsibility as a result of their time through our development programmes and their experience within the clubs. We would hope to see the numbers of black and mixed ethnicity coaches in senior positions improve over time.”
In 2021, the Premier League was among five key stakeholders who created the Coach Index, providing black, Asian and mixed heritage coaches with information about employment and development opportunities within professional clubs.
“In any professional environment, your network can be key to the next door opening,” explains Sankofa. “The Coach Index is part of the way that coaches can increase their network. We have sessions where we invite coaches to go into clubs and meet people who work there and we are definitely seeing success.
“We now have nearly 400 coaches registered on the system and success would be more and more coaches from under-represented groups across the player pathway and, ultimately what people want to see, right up to the first team.”
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