FAI to bring in compulsory ID cards for coaches

As a child protection measure, the FAI are planning to introduce an identity card which will be compulsory for every coach in the country to have by 2020.

And, from the start of next year, all volunteers who want to work in club football will first have to have undergone Garda vetting and complete a child welfare course.

“It wasn’t always mandatory,” said FAI coach education manager Niall O’Regan at yesterday’s launch of the Coach Education Pathway 2017-2020. “What you would have had up until now is a situation where if someone was engaging in the pathway, they would have to do it. As of 2017, every volunteer working with a club, it’s mandatory for them.