How did it start?
In 2009, Raymond Verheijen founded the Dutch Football Academy for coaches who want to raise their bar and to challenge the status quo in football. Verheijen’s mission is to educate football coaches in a more objective and football specific way rather than based on the flavour of the month or by just copying the champion. The Dutch Football Academy was not meant as an alternative to the regular coach education system of the Dutch FA – the KNVB – but as an additional curriculum with specialized courses. Verheijen’s mission was supported by Guus Hiddink – one of the most successful Dutch coaches ever – who became the worldwide ambassador.
Worldwide infrastructure
The Dutch Football Academy developed into the World Football Academy (WFA) in 2011 when an international coach education curriculum was launched. After the initial pilot in the UK (2010) the WFA was introduced on all continents: Japan (2011), South Africa (2012), Middle East (2013), USA (2014), Australia (2015), Brazil (2016) and China (2017).
International curriculum
Besides offering domestic courses in the respective countries, FCE has developed an international pathway with unique 5-day events like the Mentorship, Expert Meeting and ProCourse. The inaugural Expert Meeting took place in 2012 in Amsterdam followed by editions at Chelsea F.C. in London (2013), Bloemfontein, South Africa (2014), FC Barcelona (2015), Feyenoord Rotterdam (2016), Benfica Lisbon (2017), Club Bruges (2018) and Hajduk Split (2019).
The ProCourse has so far been hosted by Valencia CF (2018) and RB Leipzig (2019). The host for the 2020 edition will be announced soon.
Online platform
With the introduction of this new online platform, in 2019, the World Football Academy evolved into Football Coach Evolution. The mission of FCE is to bring the latest developments in football not only to the doorsteps of the football elite but also to Next Generation coaches and coaches of smaller football countries. FCE offers both free content and online courses.