Former All Whites goal keeper James Bannatyne who was part of the historic New Zealand side at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa is conducting the course.
Notable participants from the 24 include Fiji senior team stoppers Simione Tamanisau and Beniaminio Mateinaqara.
“The objective of the course is to educate the goal keeper coaches and also improve the standard of goal keeping in Fiji,”Bannatyne said.
“We have got a good group here with some motivated coaches, goal keepers, couple of national goal keepers which is fantastic and the objective is to give participants the tools to go out there and work with youth goal keepers and keepers in the region to improve the standard.”
Bannatyne says the week long course is a follow up to the one which he conducted two years ago at the National Football Academy in Ba.
“I did a course in Ba two years ago. That course was about creating awareness around the role of the goal keeper an importance of a goal keeper coach. This week we are doing a FIFA course and we are also incorporating in an OFC Youth License Level 1 which is a step up of the initial course that we did.”
“We will be putting the coaches through a lot more work on the field in terms of taking coaching sessions with both kids and fellow participants. This will be giving them the tools to go out there in their schools communities to develop goal keeping.”
The week long course concludes on Friday and Bannatyne hopes the knowledge that will be gained by the participants will add a positive growth to football in Fiji.
“I hope the participants leave with a sense of excitement. We have a group that have the opportunity to work with young goal keepers around the country and make a difference,” Bannatyne said.
The youngest participant in the course is 14-year old Alzaar Alam who is the goal keeper for the Seaqaqa senior side.
Fiji FA chief executive officer Bob Kumar acknowledged the continued support of FIFA and OFC.
Story courtesy Fiji FA Media.
For more on Fiji football visit www.fijifootball.com.fj

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