Lesson Learned from Coaches of Malaysia National Football Development Programme (NFDP): Preferred Career Development Pathway and Accredited Coaching Course

The issues surrounding players and coaches at the elite football in Malaysia have been addressed by a number of scholars. Ironically, however, grassroots football coaches, although many said their role are fundamental to the development of football, has rarely been explored in the academic literature. This study to date therefore, has tended to focus on the grassroots coaches in National Football Development Program (NFDP). The aims of this study has been to try and established what is the NFDP coaches preferred as their development pathways as well as pathways of their preferred formal accreditation processes. This research was guided by principles of grounded theory (GT) by Strauss and Corbin, (1990) investigating the development of expertise. This is a qualitative study that used a developed design concept, using a purposive sampling method. A total of seven participants (coaches) from the NFDP were interviewed to determine the current and existing development direction related to their coaching context and accreditation pathways. The findings showed that their interest or preferred development pathways and preferred accreditation content, are different from what is already in place provided by the national football governing body, that they believed able to enhance their coaching competency. It is recommended that NFDP governing body, utilized the results of this study to review its coaching course to meet the aspiration of its coaches and approach findings of this study as a guideline to relay its career development pathways to address the needs of their coaches to finally give benefit to the player’s development. Researchers hope that proposed findings of this study can assist to improve the career path of the coaches in order to provide maximum impact to the national football development through NFDP.