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The FA · free preview

Introduction to Coaching Football

The first formal rung: what a coach is, how players learn, how to design a session and run a matchday — and how to handle parents.

£100 · 4 weeks · online modules plus three live webinars · age 16+ · formerly the FA Level 1

Take the courseCreate a free accountCourse fee: £100 in-game · with Full AccessCourse fees are in-game money, paid from your in-game wallet — never real money.

Free lesson · How to be a football coach

Where this course sits

Introduction to Coaching Football is the first rung of The FA's formal coaching ladder. In 2021 it replaced the old FA Level 1 in Coaching Football, a face-to-face course of three or four days that ended with a 20-minute practical coaching activity. The new course is entirely online: six short digital modules and three live webinars, released week by week across four weeks.

  • Minimum age 16. No previous qualification is needed, though the free EE Playmaker is the recommended first step.
  • Cost: £100 on the current course page. It launched at £160, so older club pages may still quote that.
  • It ends with a 20-minute applied assessment. It is completion-based: there is no pass/fail observation of you coaching.
  • It includes Introduction to First Aid in Football, which the Playmaker route does not.

With it you can coach as an assistant or as a grassroots team coach, and many clubs treat it as the minimum for anyone leading a squad. It is also the mandatory gateway to the UEFA C Diploma, for which the legacy Level 1 still counts.

On the touchline

A parent who did the Playmaker last season now runs your U9 warm-ups and asks if this course lets her take the team on her own next year. The honest answer: it gives her the coaching craft, but the club can only name her lead coach once her safeguarding course, first aid and DBS check are also in date.

Source: Coaching certifications reference · 2. Introduction to Coaching Football

The syllabus: 6 modules, 24 lessons

  1. 1

    How to be a football coach

    • Where this course sits free preview
    • Six hats, one child
    • The four-corner model
    • The England DNA and the three moments
  2. 2

    Webinar: how to engage your players

    • How children learn, age by age
    • What keeps them coming back
    • Fun first, active always
    • Words that build players
  3. 3

    How to design a session

    • The anatomy of a session
    • The SAFE check and the SPACE audit
    • STEPS: one session, every child
    • Plan, do, review
  4. 4

    Webinar: how to develop skilful players

    • From technique to skill: the pressure ladder
    • Teaching a technique well
    • Let the game teach: small-sided games and constraints
    • Questions, not commands
  5. 5

    How to run matchday

    • The right game for the age
    • Running matchday like a developer
    • Respect, referees and your own behaviour
    • Keeping matchday safe
  6. 6

    Webinar: how to manage parent relationships

    • Set expectations before week one
    • The touchline code and the Respect programme
    • Explaining the long game: growth and birthdays
    • When a parent is unhappy