The viva voce phase of the worldwide-recognised Pro Diploma course here started on April 1 and is being ‘refereed’ by FIFA and AFC Instructor and member of the course’s Commission of Theses Reception Rustam Akramov and others.

The world’s highest football coaching qualification consists of four modules of training and the coaches now taking the course in Uzbekistan have passed three exams, prepared six planning documents and are now facing their final hurdle – orally defending their dissertations.

Akramov told The-AFC.com: “The Pro Diploma is recognised worldwide. For many months, the coaches now being trained under the diploma programme in Uzbekistan have been improving their knowledge of football.

“I have no doubt that they are now able to apply them in action and thereby contribute to the development of football in their regions.

“UEFA and the AFC award their own diplomas and the two football bodies have a mutual recognition agreement of the diplomas.

“Today (April 5), we will examine the dissertations of Samvel Babayan from Pakhtakor, Uzbekistan, and Ibrahim al-Shammari from the Kuwait national team,” he said.

The AFC has made it mandatory for coaches who want to lead professional clubs in Asia participating in the AFC’s championships to have the diploma which takes about a year to complete.

The other 13 coaches in the Uzbek course are follows:

Islom Akhmedov (Abdysh-Ata, Kyrgyzstan), Anarbek Ormombekov (Kyrgyzstan), Nima Chokey (Technical Director of Bhutan national teams), Bayram Durdiyev (Talyp Sporty, Turkmenistan), Nematzhan Zakirov (Abdysh-Ata, Kyrgyzstan), Sergei Lushchan (Bunyodkor, Uzbekistan), Rovshan Mukhadov (Olympic Team of Turkmenistan), Alexander Mochinov (Oktepa, Uzbekistan) Konstantin Novikov (Spartak, Uzbekistan), Anwar Jabbarov (Mashal, Uzbekistan), Vladimir Bondarenko (Nasaf, Uzbekistan), Oleg Tyulkin (Shurtan, Uzbekistan) and Zoir Turakulov (Nasaf, Uzbekistan).