FIFA Coaching Instructor, Bernhard Lippert has been appointed as Technical Director of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) for a period of two years. The 58-year-old German trainer is a FIFA expert in instructing and training coaches and coach trainers.
Until this appointment, Lippert was Technical Director of the Associations of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA), a position he occupied for 12 years (2008-20).
He was also the Head Coach of Azerbaijan’s U17, U19 and U21 National Teams and he played a vital role in qualifying Azerbaijan for the first time in the country’s history to the Elite Round of their respective European competitions.
He also achieved the best result with the U21 in the history of the country during the European qualifiers.
Lippert was Head Coach of Eintracht Frankfurt between 1998-99 where he also served as Assistant Coach, Youth Education Supervisor and Head Coach of Eintracht Frankfurt U23 at different occasions.
At Eintracht Frankfurt, he trained and developed over 20 players in the youth system of the club to become regular players in the Bundesliga.
At the early stages of his coaching career, he had brief coaching stints with German football giants, Bayern Munich, English side Leeds United and Spanish club.
As Technical Director of the Ghana FA, he will head the Technical Directorate and formulate guidelines, strategies and policies for the training and the technical development of coaches of Ghana football.
He will also provide advice to the Executive Council on coaching and technical development matters in general and the supervision of national football team coaches, to which the Technical Director may be assigned by the Association.
Bernhard Lippert will be responsible for the strategy, development and technical direction of the Technical Directorate, the preparation and implementation of technical programmes at the grassroots, juvenile, and National Teams thereby preparing football coaches and footballers for the future.
He shall be required to build the capacity of the Technical Directorate of the Association that will include but not limited to the following departments; Coach Education, Referee Education, Talent Identification, Performance Analysis, Technical Studies and Video Analysis, Health and Nutrition, Sports Psychology, Strength and Conditioning and Sports Medicine.
As part of his functions, the Technical Director will arrange courses and conferences for Match Officials, Team Officials, Instructors, Trainers and Administrators.
He is also expected to assess the training programme of the National Teams, examine Reports on players made by the Handlers (Team Managers, Coaches and the Welfare Officers), analyse International Matches and advise the Association.
The former footballer and highly respected coaches’ trainer is fluent in English, Spanish and German.
Lippert’s appointment comes after a process which saw over one hundred coaches applying for the job with six technical personalities being shortlisted for interviews (three Ghanaian Coaches and three foreign Coaches).
