"Precisely Because They're Volunteers, They're Properly Protected": What France's System of 400,000 Coaches Asks of Japan's Youth Development Scene
Choosing to be a volunteer coach — what French grassroots football shows us
On a Sunday morning, somewhere in France, it's usually the coach who arrives at the pitch first.
Before the children arrive, they line up the cones, bring out the balls, and mentally run through that day's training plan.
Many of them are not paid.
It's said that across roughly 12,000 clubs affiliated with the French Football Federation (FFF), more than 400,000 volunteer coaches are active every season.
From U7 schools to senior teams in regional leagues, this layer of coaches is remarkably thick and wide.
What it means to “teach without pay”
In Japan too, it is often unpaid adults who support local youth teams and amateur clubs.
They take time off work on weekends, drive children to matches in their own cars, and blow the whistle even in the rain.
Their image overlaps in many ways with that of France's volunteer coaches.
In France, however, there exists a framework established by the FFF called the “status of the volunteer coach.”
To officially act as a volunteer coach, one needs a qualification appropriate to the competitive level, and the relationship with the club is formally registered through a document called the bordereau de bénévolat (volunteer declaration form).
This is not merely a paperwork procedure.
It ensures club insurance coverage in case of an accident during activity, secures the coach's legal standing, and serves as an entry point into a qualification system that can lead to a future career.
In other words, the idea isn't “anything goes because it's voluntary,” but rather “precisely because it's voluntary, there is a system in place to properly protect you.”
A quiet tension between qualifications and the field
Under FFF regulations, the type of qualification required is finely defined according to the competitive level of the team being coached.
For the youth categories from U6 to U9, the CFI (Certificat Fédéral d'Initiateur) is required; for regional league youth or adult teams, a corresponding federal diploma is needed; and from National 2 upward, a paid employment contract becomes mandatory.
Furthermore, starting from the 2026–2027 season, the previous grace period will end, and the requirements are set to become stricter.
It is said that the qualifications required will also be further broken down by men's and women's competitive categories.
Such changes to the system require coaches to continually check for themselves, every season, whether their qualifications still match the level they are coaching at.
That might sound like a hassle.
But looked at differently, one could say the system is encouraging people to regularly ask themselves, “Where do I stand right now?”
Where do Japanese coaches measure themselves against?
Looking at Japan, many coaches who support local youth football either hold a JFA-certified license, or continue to be involved without any qualification at all.
This isn't a matter of one being better than the other.
But how many coaches regularly ask themselves, “Why am I involved with this team?” or “Is my current knowledge and experience truly helping these children grow?”
The French system has a mechanism that prompts this kind of reflection from the outside.
Japan has similar mechanisms too, but in many regions the reality on the ground still leans toward “as long as someone is there, that's fine.”
Ensuring the quality of coaches and securing the number of coaches are both important.
Where that balance is struck will vary depending on the culture and resources of each club and region.
Between compensation and passion
In France, “reimbursement of actual expenses” to volunteer coaches is permitted, but regularly paying a fixed allowance is considered a “disguised salary,” which risks the club being charged additional social security contributions.
This boundary exists in a similar form in amateur sports settings in Japan as well.
The practice of handing over cash under the name of “thank-you money” remains widespread, but often both the club and the recipient remain vague about what it actually means.
There is nothing wrong with being paid.
But the simple formulas “unpaid means passionate” or “paid means professional” don't hold up in reality either.
The shape passion and responsibility take differs from person to person, and from position to position.
Sometimes it is the coach who has stood on the pitch as a volunteer for years who thinks most deeply about the players.
On the other hand, a paid coach may also find something in the work that goes beyond “it's just a job.”
Rather than which is “correct,” what matters more for the children may be whether each coach holds firmly onto the root question of “why am I here.”
What the adults in youth development are being asked
What France's volunteer coaching system reveals is, in a sense, quite simple.
It's the idea, built into the system itself, that “coaches too must continuously update their position and knowledge.”
Video analysis skills, how to read data, how to use scouting tools.
In the context of French coach training, it is explicitly stated that acquiring such modern skills alongside tactical knowledge is a factor that helps the transition from volunteer to professional.
Teaching children is also a form of growth for those who teach.
The more widely that understanding spreads, the richer the field of youth development becomes.
This holds true in Japan as well.
That coach will line up the cones again next week, at the same time
In France, as qualification requirements become stricter from next season onward, volunteer coaches will once again confirm their own standing, take training as needed, and renew their registrations.
There is some hassle involved.
Even so, the number 400,000 is unlikely to shift so easily.
Because the reason they come to the pitch lies somewhere quite different from the paperwork.
There are people, both in France and in Japan, who simply want to help create that moment on a Sunday morning when children start kicking a ball.
Next week too, that person will arrive at the pitch early and start lining up the cones.
Quietly thinking about that day's training, before the children arrive.
The risk of a system becoming “too well organized”
The more finely qualification requirements are broken down, the more a different reality emerges on the ground: coaches who step away, feeling “I don't have enough qualification for this now.” For parent-coaches who also hold jobs, the more training and paperwork increase, the higher the psychological cost of continuing to stand on the pitch becomes.
In Japan too, as coaching qualification requirements become more established, there are more situations where “you can't lead without a license.” This has meaning from the standpoint of raising the overall quality. At the same time, however, there are also voices saying that adults with experience and passion, but unfamiliar with paperwork, are leaving the field.
A system functions to “protect” coaches while also functioning to “select” them. Broadening the base of grassroots football and ensuring quality are both important, and leaning too far toward either one leaves something else thinner. If we are to reference the French system, we also need to take on board this tension.
Whether coaching qualifications are seen as a “barrier to entry” or as a “ladder for growth” changes their meaning. Some coaches say that getting certified helped them organize how they structure their coaching, while others feel that dealing with paperwork has reduced the time they spend facing the children. Both voices serve as material for measuring whether the system is actually working.
Three questions to bring back to the field
- At the start of the season, try saying out loud, just once, “Why am I here?” Putting the reason into words gives shape to something you may have kept doing without quite realizing why.
- Consciously change the first word you say to a child who has made a mistake, compared to the week before. Doing so makes you newly aware of the kind of language you tend to fall back on.
- Once a year, check where your own knowledge and qualifications stand against an outside standard. Even if nothing about your current situation changes, the day you check it can change how you face the field afterward.
- What you should know if you're aiming to become a football coach — what France's qualification system teaches us about “what lies beyond the qualification”
- What's worth developing before a better pitch — how environment and the “power to choose” change football
- The one question people aiming to become football coaches should ask themselves before pursuing “certification”
