Three Football Association of Malawi Secretariat officials are in South Africa for a four-day UEFA Senior Team Executive Program (STEP) workshop which is being hosted by the Council for Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa).

They include FAM Marketing and Broadcasting Manager Tulipo Mwenelupembe, Management Accountant Sebastian Chinkhandwe and Media Officer Patuma Tonex who are among the participants from the Cosafa Member Associations taking part in the workshop at Edward Hotel in Durban.

According to Cosafa General Secretary Sue Destombes, the workshop aims at developing leadership and interpersonal skills for Member Associations secretariat staff for better management of the game.

“Any interventions of this nature are very important to our Member Associations in terms of capacity building. UEFA is involving management from the secretariat which means that it gives capacity to the engine room of the association.

 “As Cosafa, we hope that every participant is going to drive maximum benefit from the workshop and make it into practice when they go back home and also share the contents with colleagues at their respective associations for us to develop the game in our region,” said Destombes. 

During the four days, the participants are expected to undergo sessions on governance, leadership, strategic planning, financial and operational management, marketing and communications, as well as soft skills such as how to communicate and negotiate effectively, and how to create and deliver compelling presentations.

UEFA Head of International Relations Eva Pasquirer, UEFA Academy Knowledge Assitant Antoine Fournier and UEFA Consultants Pedro Correia  and Kenny MacLeod are facilitating the workshop

Apart from the STEP program, UEFA will next week hold a Career Transition Program (CTP) workshop for professional players from the Cosafa Member Associations who have recently retired or about to retire.