The Scottish FA Coach Education Department has held its latest in-person Continuous Professional Development (CPD) event at Barclays Hampden, with a tailored event aimed at goalkeeping coaches and coach educators taking place earlier this month.

The knowledge exchange event allowed coaches to discuss ideas and best practice within the modern goalkeeping environment. 

The theme for the day was goalkeeping talent ID, recruitment of goalkeepers and the transition period for young goalkeepers.

Coaches were given presentations from the goalkeeping departments at Liverpool and Newcastle United, who shared real life examples of their development methods for their young goalkeepers.

The Coach Education team will deliver several of these CPD events throughout 2026, to allow those who hold a UEFA Licence to reach their mandatory threshold of 15 hours of CPD in a three-year period.

Graeme Smith, Goalkeeping Performance and Coach Education Manager, Scottish FA: "UEFA now stipulate that all licence holders have to complete 15 hours of CPD, and half of that needs to be in a specialist environment, so tailored events like this are becoming increasingly important. 

"It's been fantastic to have a really strong calibre of coaches presenting and obviously the level they're working at is really good. We are hoping that everyone who was involved in the classroom discussions can take a little bit of information away from them and put it into their own environment.

"These days are about trying to influence, trying to provoke
discussion and debate. We're not saying that the way they do it is the way you have to do it but I hope that coaches can take information from different clubs and can put it into their own
practice at whatever level they're working at in Scotland."

Tony Caig, Head of Academy Goalkeeping, Newcastle United: "A lot of my knowledge and understanding of the game comes from working up here in Scotland where I worked at two or three different clubs in first-team roles so that probably gives me a greater insight into what we need to give the goalkeepers and how we develop them to get them ready for that next step.

"It's really beneficial for those that are here today to look at some of the processes we use and they can potentially take a little part of it and implement it themselves. If we can affect things positively, everybody benefits from that."

Colin Stewart, Goalkeeping Development and Pathway Lead, Liverpool: "It was great to be asked to share about how we see loans development and how we structure goalkeeping development at Liverpool Football Club, in terms of what we want the young goalkeepers to go through before they hit the first team.

"The main thing was a chance to get everyone to come together and talk about the development of young goalkeepers mainly. I think it's great to be in the room with like-minded people, understanding the the differences at different levels from the academy side of things up to the first team.

"It's also great to know that we're all doing the similar things anyway and we're all striving for the same goal, which is to get our goalkeepers better, improved and working through that pathway and, ultimately, playing in your first team."

Paul Gallagher, Goalkeeping Coach, Heart of Midlothian: "Finances dictate at times what you can and can't do but ultimately it's fantastic to gain that knowledge and experiences from clubs at the highest and most elite level.

"It's great to know that there's not too much difference between the way we work to the likes of Liverpool and Newcastle in the Premier League. It's great to see that we're all doing similar things, we've all got the same goals and objectives.

"Hopefully we can add some little elements into our structure and the way we coach and deliver sessions as well."