Major obstacle emerges in Celtic’s bid to appoint Ange Postecoglou as manager
Soccer Football - 2018 World Cup Qualifications - Australia vs Honduras - ANZ Stadium, Sydney, Australia - November 15, 2017 Australia’s Tim Cahill hugs Australia coach Ange Postecoglou as he is substituted off REUTERS/David Gray
Ange Postecoglou doesn’t have the UEFA Pro Coaching licence required to manage in Europe.
Last night the former Australian national team boss was strongly linked with the Celtic job after the hoops announced that they had failed to bring in Eddie Howe as manager.
Postecoglou managed the Australian national side at the 2014 World Cup Finals in Brazil but that doesn’t cut any ice with UEFA who insist on managers have their own Pro Licence with the national associations expected to implement the regulations.
To get to the UEFA Pro Licence you have to go through the C, B and A licences, the route that Jesse Marsch used Lennoxtown for before he moved from New York RB into Germany with RB Leipzig.
Highlighting the issue in January 2020 the Sydney Morning Herald reported:
The Sun-Herald sought comment from FFA (Football Federation Australia), but they did not respond. However sources close to the organisation say it is working towards reducing the costs of coaching courses as well as working with the AFC to have its badges recognised in Europe.
“My major concern is that we want to get the cost down, particularly in the C, B and A licences for the local punter and I believe the FFA are working towards that,” Glenn Warry said. “There is no doubt that coach education is a massive revenue earner for the FFA, and I would like to see more of that money go back into coaching rather than consolidating revenue in order to support coach education further.
“The other major concern is for people like Ange, Graham [Arnold] and Kevin (Muscat) Tony (Popovic) and other leading Australian coaches who want to coach in Europe. At the moment they have to do a UEFA Pro licence.”
Warry is the Chief Executive of Football Coaches Australia.
Postecoglou is currently managing Yokohama Marinos in Japan, across Asia they recognise the Australian coaching certificates.
Celtic return for pre-season training on June 17 with the first competitive matches of next season the Champions League qualifiers being played on July 20/21 and 27/28.