League managers praise Keane's commitment

Roy Keane has been praised by the League Managers’ Association for his determination to acquire the top coaching qualifications.

The new Sunderland boss has already passed his B licence and is now working towards his A licence and UEFA Pro-licence.

LMA chief executive John Barnwell told PA Sport: “Roy Keane has set his stall out and is doing the thing in the proper manner.

“Being a football manager is a difficult job and while qualifications do not give you a guarantee of success they give you a better chance.

“In the Football League there are no mandatory qualifications for managers - it’s only in the Premier League at the moment – but if you aspire to work at the top you have to be ahead of the game.

“Once Roy gets the UEFA Pro-licence he will be able to coach anywhere in Europe. They are much stricter on the continent than we are in this country but hopefully we are going down that road ourselves, because that is the right way to go.”

Keane is one of a number of people who have taken advantage of a scheme by the Professional Footballers’ Association to offer players the chance to gain coaching qualifications.