Football coaching, the Portuguese way: the ecology of practice as the referent for evidence-based coach education

In Portugal, coach education commenced a few decades ago. Coach education was not on the agenda during the Portuguese dictatorial regime (before April 1974) because the government did not formally recognize the importance of sport in Portuguese society. Indeed, physical education was implemented in 1940 only because it was useful as a means for fostering obedience and preparing young people for military service. However, since the spread of democracy, after 1974, and the influences of globalization, Portuguese society has become more conscious of the importance of sport for all populations. The formalization of coach education began during the 1980s and substantially increased in the subsequent years. The tipping point was when the government created the General Direction of Sports, which included an education department to support Portuguese sport federations in organizing courses and developing coach education (Resende et al., 2016). In this chapter, we start by discussing sport coach education in Portugal, including the grading system and the process for continuing education, and how the participation of the Universities, the Sport Federations and other organizations is regulated. We next discuss football coaches’ education, where we describe in more detail the historical evolution that helps to understand the many world-level football coaches from Portugal. Then, we offer specific examples about how a scientifically sound ecological dynamics approach developed in Portugal supports coaches’ education. At the end of the chapter, we sum up the key points of Portuguese coach education, with particular emphasis to football, as well as future directions.