If you coach in South Africa and hold no formal qualification, the SAFA D Licence is where you start. It is the introductory course in the CAF structure, it assumes nothing before it, and everything above it — C, B, A — requires it.
What it covers
The D Licence is built for the grassroots and youth game rather than the professional one. Published descriptions place its focus on grassroots football, youth player development, training methodology and coaching principles.
That emphasis is deliberate and worth understanding before you enrol. This is not a tactics course. It is a course about how to run a session that develops players — organisation, age-appropriate practice, communication, and the fundamentals of how the game is taught.
How it is structured
Course information describes the D Licence as running in two main phases, with face-to-face sessions delivered either as roughly five consecutive days or spread over weekends, totalling in the region of eighty hours, with days running from early morning to early evening.
Two things follow from that. First, it is a genuine commitment — you will need the leave or the weekends. Second, the exact format varies by delivery, so confirm the schedule with the region running your specific course rather than assuming.
How to get a place
D Licence courses are delivered through SAFA's regional structures, and announcements come through the regions and through SAFA's coaching department. SAFA Ekurhuleni, for example, scheduled two D Licence courses in a single fortnight — 27 June to 4 July and 6 to 13 July 2026 — alongside a CAF C Diploma the week before.
Practically: follow your regional association, watch SAFA's coaching news, and be ready to move when a course is announced. Places are finite and the professional-game standards introduced from 2024/25 have pushed demand up across the whole structure.
Before you go
Have a team. Every level of this pathway is assessed on real coaching, and the D Licence is no exception — you will get far more out of it, and complete it more easily, if you are actively working with players while you do it.
It is also worth arriving with the fundamentals already in your head rather than meeting them for the first time in a long day of contact hours. That is precisely what our free Foundation Certificate is built for.
Where Tribal Nation Sports fits
Tribal Nation Sports is a football education platform based in Cape Town. We do not issue SAFA, CAF or UEFA qualifications — those are issued by federations, and any claim otherwise should be treated with suspicion. What we run is the preparation and the continuing education around them: a free Foundation Certificate, masterclasses taught by working professionals, and specialist courses for the analysis and academy roles the badge pathway does not cover.
Start with the free Foundation Certificate — three modules, about ninety minutes, no cost.
Sources
- SAFA — Coaching department news
- Insight News Network — SAFA coaching courses aim to empower Ekurhuleni's football future
- SABC Sport — PSL to introduce coaching standards in 2024/25
Checked 16 August 2026. Coaching-course dates, prices and entry rules change — confirm with the issuing federation before you rely on them.
Key takeaways
- →The D Licence is the entry qualification — no prior badge required.
- →Reported format is two phases, around five consecutive days or across weekends, roughly eighty hours.
- →It is delivered through SAFA's regional structures, so availability depends on your region.
- →It focuses on grassroots and youth coaching, not professional tactics.