POPA Press Conference — Final Statement

The Hellenic Federation of Sports Coaches and Trainers (POPA) presents proposals on important issues requiring immediate change. Enabling the Voice of the Coach to be heard is vital to progress in sport. Coaches are fundamental to sport’s existence, a fact sports organisations systematically tend to forget. Just as schools cannot function without teachers, sport cannot exist without coaches.

Member of the International Council for Coaching Excellence and the European Coaching Council

www.popa.gr
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

[carousel] [carousel_item][caption]Vasilis Diafas (Board Member), Kostas Tournavitis (First Vice President), Athanasios Villiotis (President), Dimitris Stefanidis (General Secretary), Nikos Konstantopoulos (Journalist)[/caption][/carousel_item] [/carousel]

Press Conference Topics

Introduction

The Hellenic Federation of Sports Coaches and Trainers (POPA) presents a series of proposals on important issues requiring immediate change.

Ensuring that the Voice of the Coach is heard is also vital to progress on many issues in sport. Coaches are fundamental to sport’s very existence, a fact that sports organisations systematically tend to forget. Just as schools cannot exist and function without teachers, sport cannot exist without coaches.

By the nature of their profession, coaches do far more than design and implement training programmes: they deal with many other matters affecting their work. Their views therefore carry—or should carry—considerable weight and can contribute to sound decision-making.

We therefore demand that coaches participate in decision-making in sport.

Recognition of the Profession

For coaches to form part of our country’s economic activity, it is essential that they have:

1. The right to work, together with a minimum level of remuneration for each coaching category and mandatory employment contracts.
2. The right to insurance.
3. The right to a pension.

To achieve this, POPA will contact the Ministry of Labour to change the current situation for coaches’ benefit. Thousands of coaches work in various sports, clubs and federations without receiving regular pay. Many are paid in the form of travel expenses, have no insurance or contracts, and must settle for whatever they are offered.

Checking the Legal Qualifications of Club and National Team Coaches

To ensure that only legally qualified coaches holding a professional licence can obtain coaching work, checks must finally be introduced and penalties imposed on offenders, whether coaches, clubs or federations. Oversight is the starting point for the proper implementation of decisions and regulations.

We propose that POPA undertake checks on club coaches through a two-person inspection team comprising one POPA representative and one representative of the coaches’ association for the sport concerned. Any infringement—employment of a coach without a professional licence and coach identity card—will be reported to the General Secretariat of Sports’ department responsible for clubs and gyms, so that the penalties under Article 8, paragraph 3, and Article 50, paragraph 6, of Law 2725/1999 can be imposed. The same team will also check coaches of clubs participating in national championships.

Certification of Sports Instructors Working in Tourism

To ensure high-quality services, sports teachers and instructors working in tourism must undergo a defined examination and certification process and join a professional body responsible for registering and monitoring them. The sports they teach—such as climbing, water skiing, skiing and river canoe-kayak—carry significant risks, so these instructors must provide a high level of safety.

Sports Law

Article 31 (Coach), paragraph 5(d), states: “The following are required to employ a coach in accordance with the above: sports clubs offering an individual sport and having athletes under eighteen (18) years of age.” We believe the law must expressly require clubs offering individual sports to employ a coach regardless of athletes’ age, as is implied in paragraph (c) of the same article for team sports clubs.

Training can take place only under the supervision of a legally qualified coach, the specialist able to guarantee proper and safe preparation for athletes of every sport and every age.

Coaching Regulations

There must be unified coaching regulations covering the general matters affecting coaches:

1. Conditions for practising the coaching profession.
2. Formal coaching qualifications.
3. Coaching categories.
4. Employment of coaches.
5. Coach identity cards.
6. Sports clubs’ obligations to employ coaches.
7. Conditions for employing foreign coaches.
8. Activities incompatible with practising as a coach.
9. Checks on coaches’ suitability.

The regulations must also address the particular requirements of each sport. We will not set out those details here: they should be examined by the General Secretariat of Sports’ legislative drafting committee. We again stress two matters of paramount importance: inspection teams must monitor compliance, and penalties must be imposed for non-compliance so that the regulations are effectively applied.

Selection of National Team Coaches

Coaches in each sport must have a say in selecting national team coaches. Such appointments should not be made without consulting their colleagues. In the selection process:

1. All coaches who wish to do so must be entitled to apply.
2. The qualifications required of candidates must be specified.
3. Selection must be made by a committee comprising representatives of the relevant federation, the General Secretariat of Sports and the sport’s coaches or coaches’ association.

This will establish a transparent, valid, reliable and objective process for selecting the most capable candidates.

Coaching Schools

POPA proposed establishing a National Coaching School as a higher education institution, modelled on the curriculum of university departments of physical education and sport science, but with specialisation in each sport. Athletes and students from those departments would gain admission through examinations. However, the country’s current financial circumstances require us to develop an alternative proposal, based on:

1. Improving the standard of knowledge provided.
2. Operating schools only where a demonstrated need for new coaches exists to meet genuine demand.
3. A defined curriculum and syllabus.
4. A course duration sufficient to provide proper, comprehensive knowledge.
5. Practical training.
6. Reliable examinations.
7. Appropriately qualified teaching staff.

The schools must be established by the General Secretariat of Sports and supervised by a committee comprising representatives of the Secretariat, the relevant federation and POPA.

Personal Training

A major problem in sport and private gyms is the presence of people who present themselves and work as coaches or personal trainers without holding a qualification or certification from a competent body, placing athletes and other participants at serious risk. To eliminate these practices and protect participants’ health, we demand mandatory checks on the qualifications of anyone seeking to work in these settings.

Benefits for Coaches

Coaches should receive the same benefits as athletes. The coach plans and is responsible for an athlete’s preparation, works alongside them and is the architect of any success. Coaches must therefore enjoy benefits equivalent to those of athletes, correcting the injustice they face, bringing their role out of obscurity and recognising their contribution to Greek sport.

Athletes’ Health Checks

To prevent tragic incidents during national teams’ participation in international competitions, and above all to protect athletes’ lives and health, team members must undergo full medical examinations before departure to confirm that they are in excellent health.

The Greek state must not allow a tragedy such as the death of canoe champion Andreas Kiligaridis during competition in Poland in May 2013 to happen again.

Anti-Doping Tests

To protect our athletes’ health and the integrity of our sport, we consider it essential to test all national team athletes for prohibited substances before every international competition. These tests could be carried out by the specialist staff of ESKAN and EKAE.

Accompanying Team Officials

Under no circumstances should a national team’s departure for international competitions in Greece or abroad, or for a training camp, be approved without:

1. A delegation leader.
2. A doctor.
3. A legally qualified coach.

They are responsible for the delegation’s safety, health and proper functioning.

Active Oversight of Federations by the General Secretariat of Sports

Experience to date demonstrates that the General Secretariat of Sports must move from simply supervising federations to actively inspecting them. Federations must operate in accordance with laws and regulations, rather than at the whim of their leaders, and specific penalties must apply to every infringement so that those laws and regulations fulfil their intended purpose.

This oversight rests on the fundamental fact that federations receive state funding. All subsidised federations require full, thorough checks of their actual operations, not merely general supervision. Federations wishing to invoke self-governance should choose self-financing instead of support from Greek taxpayers’ money.

Finally, the state and successive lawmakers should reflect on their grave responsibility for the unhealthy situation arising, in some cases, from the legislation itself and, in others, from its non-enforcement.

POPA’s International Partnerships

Cooperation with the Cologne Coaching Academy

In its effort to improve Greek coaches’ knowledge across all sports, POPA has reached an agreement in principle with the Cologne coaching academy. Sport-specific coaching seminars will be held in Greece, taught by professors from the academy, professors from university departments of physical education and sport science, and Greek sports scientists.

POPA Membership of the World and European Coaching Councils: Their Purpose and the Benefits for Greek Coaches

POPA recently became a member of the International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE) and its European branch, the European Coaching Council (ECC). These organisations seek international recognition of the coaching profession and appropriate education for coaches.

The initiative is supported by the European Commission, particularly its Education, Culture and Sport Unit. EU support for sport is provided through the Erasmus+ programme.

The IOC also supports ICCE’s work through its Olympic Entourage Committee. In recognition of coaches’ contribution to sport, it has been proposed that medals should also be awarded to coaches at the Olympic Games, bringing them out of obscurity and highlighting their decisive role.

International—and therefore European—recognition of the coaching profession, combined with POPA’s ICCE membership and European Commission support, will also lead to favourable developments for Greek coaches, particularly concerning employment.

POPA Board

President: Athanasios D. Villiotis (Canoe-Kayak)
First Vice President: Konstantinos Tournavitis (Swimming)
Second Vice President: Theologos Danezis (Sailing)
General Secretary: Dimitris Stefanidis (Coaching athletes with disabilities)
Deputy General Secretary: Alexandros Moraris (Swimming)
Treasurer: Filippos Oikonomou (Cycling)
Organisational Secretary: Giorgos Arachovitis (Skiing)

Members: Alexandros Nikolopoulos (Swimming), Kostas Grekas (Coaching athletes with disabilities), Vangelis Kozompolis (Swimming), Vasilis Diafas (Canoe-Kayak), Gerasimos Nikolaidis (Sailing), Nikos Vezos (Swimming), Giannis Kavarlingos (Sailing), Aristotelis Lampridis (Weightlifting).