FAWSL and FAWC quintet to participate in Coaches Excellence Initiative

Five highly-rated coaches from the Barclays FA Women’s Super League and FA Women’s Championship have been selected to take part in The Football Association’s new coaching initiative.

The Coaching Excellence Initiative is an 18-month programme which has been created to develop and connect high-performance coaches working in the elite women’s game.

FA Women’s Super League and FA Women’s Championship coaches Gemma Davies (Aston Villa), Carla Ward (Birmingham City), Tanya Oxtoby (Bristol City), Gemma Donnelly (Blackburn Rovers) and Riteesh Mishra (Charlton Athletic) have been selected to take part in the initiative.

The selected coaches, of which there are 14 in total, will take part in group gatherings in high-performance environments and via peer mentoring and individual support sessions. The programme aims to advance the coaching and leadership abilities of coaches working in the women’s game and will become a mainstay of The Football Association’s commitment in the 2020-2024 ‘Inspiring Positive Change’ strategy, to provide coaches with personalised and high-quality experiences.

The course follows on from a record number of female coaches taking their FA Level 4 (UEFA A Licence).

Speaking about the initiative, Bristol City manager Tanya Oxtoby said “The programme has been extremely useful as it has focused-on skills and qualities which do not normally feature within technical coaching courses.

“It has provided me with a network of support in very strange times and it has changed the way I think about my way of working.”

Audrey Cooper, The Football Association’s Head of Women’s Coach Development said “The Coaching Excellence Initiative is central to our commitment to see the top coaches in the women’s game become the very best.

“This programme will also support our broader ambition to normalise women in football coaching, shining a light each year on aspirational, relatable and credible female role models.”

Article author: Matthew Ward

Source: The Football Association’s official press release

Daniel Pentland

I am the editor and owner of FAWSL Full-Time magazine. I have been reporting on men’s and women’s football at various levels since summer 2015. Some of the events which I have reported from include the 2017 UEFA Women’s European Championship, 2018 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019, SSE Women’s FA Cup final, Emirates FA Cup final, UEFA Europa League, English Football League and various international matches.

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