FORMER NATIONAL captain, striker and assistant coach Dwight Yorke spent the weekend in London, England rubbing shoulders and engaging in discussions with the best of the best at the FIFA Football Conference and Best FIFA Football awards.
Seventy days after the 2018 FIFA World Cup final, coaches and technical experts from nearly 200 member associations and all confederations gathered at the FIFA Football Conference in London to analyse the latest footballing trends and tactics showcased at this summer’s showpiece event in Russia.
Yorke was invited to be part of a FIFA panel for one of several forums at the mega event. Also featuring were the likes of Dennis Lawrence, current T&T coach and Yorke’s former teammate, and ex-T&T assistant coach Sol Campbell.
For the first time, coaches and technical experts of all member associations were invited to gather at a single post-FIFA World Cup football conference to analyse and discuss key learnings and experiences from this summer’s FIFA World Cup.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said: “For the first time, the national team coaches and technical directors from nearly 200 member associations gathered in one room and I can only be honoured about it, as FIFA president and as football fan. This event fully reflects our philosophy of placing football and key representatives from across the game – including players, coaches and technical experts – at the heart of our activities.”
During the conference, the head of FIFA’s Technical Study Group (TSG) and coaching legend, Carlos Alberto Parreira, along with FIFA’s Chief Technical Development Officer Marco van Basten shared their insights across four key areas, including a comparative goal analysis from the 2010, 2014 and 2018 editions of the FIFA World Cup, set plays, an analysis on some of the four FIFA World Cup semi-finalist teams and the role of the playmaker at the FIFA World Cup. The full TSG report on the 2018 FIFA World Cup is due to be published on October 16.
France’s path to FIFA World Cup glory also took centrestage during the live interview with Les Bleus coach Didier Deschamps. Yorke is currently a member of FIFA’s development committee.
“The days spent in London for the conference was full of in-debt analysis of everything that took place at the World Cup in Russia and a lot of detailed discussion. A lot of us got some time to catch up because as you know, the football family is a so massive and there is always so much happening. I thought it was a great event by FIFA to have all the coaches from the different countries gather in one location. There was a wealth of knowledge, experience and top personalities all together for a couple days which could only serve the game well,” Yorke said.