'Tiim': for coaches, by coaches

Whether you're new to grassroots or an elite coach with years of experience, 'tiim' offers a toolbox of resources to meet individual needs. This ensures that every coach, regardless of their stage or stature, can benefit from a user-centric service built from listening to real coaches.

Why online? Why now?

Coach education involves physical meetings, on-field demonstrations and in-person sessions. These are still at the heart of great learning but are now supported by online resources to offer the best of both worlds, or blended learning, as it is known.

As a digital service, 'tiim' offers coaches the flexibility to learn at their own pace and access content from both their desktop and mobile devices. "We know coaches are busy. So, we're making sure they can get practice drills for any age group on their phones, even right before they start training," says Bo Folke Gustavson, the NFF's head of youth development.

Digital transformation is not merely about technology. It's a cultural shift. It's about rethinking habits and assumptions and embracing new service-oriented ways of working. At the NFF, 'tiim', which is co-funded by the UEFA HatTrick programme, is at the forefront of this cultural evolution. A good example is the use of ChatGPT Co-Writer to help NFF staff write articles that are optimised for digital engagement.

Cultural change and digital transformation

This multifaceted role demands continuous learning, networking and adaptability. 'Tiim' caters for these evolving needs, offering a blend of theory, practical drills/sessions and an emphasis on delivering quality content fast.

Another critical aspect is what is 'under the hood', what the coaches don't see – administration, payment, notifications, content delivery and learning management. Connecting all these elements together and enabling analytics, insight and a customer relationship management (CRM) platform is the bedrock of the digital transformation that the NFF calls 1NFF, with 'tiim' a test case. Every coach now has their own profile page after logging in.

Building on a solid foundation

As the world rapidly gravitates towards digital, national associations cannot be left behind. The concept of 'tiim' in Norway is an example for other national associations to follow. Its development, together with the NFF's agency NoA Ignite, isn't just a project; it's a journey. The NFF already has a lot of new ideas for coach education as well as extending the core of the platform to referees, club administrators and even a supporters club.

Here's to the digitally empowered future of football! Take a look at tiim.no for a glimpse of how the NFF is moving towards that future.

This article was first issued in UEFA Direct #203.