Seven Liga Leumit head coaches had a genuine logistical problem on their hands this week: how to sit a UEFA Pro coaching course in Switzerland and still be on the touchline for their own matches. ONE reports that a workaround has now been found for most of them.
The Pro course, the top rung of the coaching-licence ladder, was scheduled to run in Switzerland from September 14 to 17. The trouble was obvious as soon as the fixture list came out: round three of the Liga Leumit season falls on September 17, the same day the course was due to wrap up.
Seven of the league's coaches were enrolled and directly affected: Noam Shoham of Hapoel Kfar Shalem, Elad Brown of Hapoel Rishon LeZion, Lior Reuben of Maccabi Bnei Reineh, Adam Lam of Hapoel Ra'anana, Roman Zolo of Maccabi Kiryat Gat, Alla Sayegh of Maccabi Ahi Nazareth and Eran Sasi of Ironi Modi'in.
According to ONE, coordination between the Israel Football Association and the league's organisers produced a fix on two fronts. First, the coaches' return flight from Switzerland has been brought forward to the evening of September 16, meaning they land in Israel via a morning connection on matchday itself rather than after the final whistle.
Second, the round originally set for September 14 — which some of the same coaches would otherwise have missed outright — has been moved back to September 10. Between the earlier kickoff and the advanced flight, all seven are now expected to miss training sessions around the course but not a single one of their teams' matches.
One case remains unresolved. Beitar Jerusalem's Almog Cohen, who took over as head coach in Jerusalem in the close season after stepping up from his role as sporting director, has his own clash: Beitar are scheduled to play on September 14 and 15, squarely inside the course dates, and ONE says no accommodation has yet been worked out for him.
The reported options on the table are for Cohen to arrange his own return in time for September 16, in line with what the other seven coaches secured, or to simply skip that stretch of the course. The course's own rules allow for one absence without forfeiting the certificate at the end of it, so missing a session would not cost him his qualification.
For now, the league and the coaches directly caught in the squeeze have avoided a headache that could otherwise have forced last-minute changes on the touchline in just the third round of the new Liga Leumit season.
