Plenty of academies will promise to make your child a better footballer. Fewer can tell you
how they coach, or why it works. This page is our answer.
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Testimonials
It started with a gap
Ali El Jishi came to Dubai in 2012, after finishing his playing career in England. He looked around at the academy scene — dozens of them already — and noticed something odd: almost everyone focused on the youngest ages, and the pathway just stopped as kids got older.
So he did the opposite. TFA began with the older age groups and worked down — building a genuine pathway, top to bottom, so a player could grow from their first touches at three all the way to competitive football at eighteen without ever hitting a dead end. That idea became TFA in 2016, and it’s still the spine of everything we do.
Three things every TFA coach must be
Ali holds every coach to the same three criteria, in this exact order:
1. A Teacher
Knowing football isn’t enough. You have to be able to teach it — to a shy four-year-old and a competitive fifteen-year-old in the same evening.
2. Someone who cares
This is non-negotiable. A coach who doesn’t genuinely care about the child in front of them doesn’t coach at TFA.
3. Knowledgeable about football
Essential — but third. Skill without teaching and care doesn’t make our team.
Read that order again, because it’s unusual, and it’s the whole point. Most places hire for football knowledge first. We hire for the human being first.
What we actually believe
Game intelligence from day one
We don’t drill children and hope. From the very first sessions, we put players in game-like situations so they learn to decide — to read the game, not just repeat a movement. We analyse real moments with them, so improvement is understood, not accidental.
Long-term development over winning on Saturday
Trophies are nice. A child who still loves football at sixteen, makes good decisions under pressure, and carries themselves well — that’s the real result. We coach for the long game.
Every child matters — and gets real minutesThrough Fun Activities
No lines, no waiting, no hiding at the back of a queue. Small groups, real attention, real time on the ball. The quiet kids and the late developers matter as much as the obvious talents.
Character is the curriculum
Respect, discipline, resilience, teamwork — these are coached as deliberately as passing and shooting. Football is simply the best classroom we know.
A Dubai academy, for everyone
Ali is British, but TFA has never been a British academy. Children from dozens of nationalities train side by side here. That mix isn’t a footnote — it’s one of the things we’re proudest of.
Girls belong in this game
See the TFA way for yourself
You can read about a philosophy, or you can watch it work. Come to a free trial and see how our coaches treat your child.
The man behind it
Ali El Jishi writes and speaks regularly about coaching, culture and player development — on why a coaching style shapes a team’s whole culture, on creating environments where more children dare to dream, and on the choices that shape a young player’s path. You can read more of his thinking on his LinkedIn. His thinking runs right through the academy, and you’ll feel it in your child’s very first session.
Our Football Coaching Philosophy at TFA
Why our coaching order matters
Most academies hire for football knowledge first. We hire for the human being first — and that single decision shapes everything a child experiences with us. A coach who can teach reaches both the shy four-year-old and the competitive fifteen-year-old. A coach who genuinely cares notices the quiet child, the one having a hard week, the one who needs a word of encouragement before anything else. Football knowledge sits on top of those two foundations, not the other way round. When you watch a TFA session, that order is what you’re really seeing: warmth and teaching first, technical detail second.
Development over winning
We compete, and we love to win — but it is never the point. The point is a child who still loves football at sixteen, makes good decisions under pressure, and carries themselves with respect on and off the pitch. Chasing trophies too young can mean playing only the strongest children, drilling rather than developing, and burning out the very players you hoped to grow. We take the longer view: real minutes for every child, learning through game-realistic play, and patience through the dips and growth spurts every young player goes through.
Character is the curriculum
Respect, discipline, resilience and teamwork are coached as deliberately as passing and shooting. We want players who shake an opponent’s hand after a tough loss, who encourage a struggling teammate, who keep trying when it’s hard. These habits — lived week after week — outlast any score and shape the adults our players become. Football, for us, is simply the best classroom we know.
A Dubai academy for everyone
Children from dozens of nationalities train side by side at TFA, and that mix is one of the things we are proudest of. For families new to Dubai, a TFA team is often the first place a child truly belongs. And girls are central to who we are — some of our best players are girls, and growing the girls’ game is a genuine ambition, not a marketing line.
Frequently Asked Questions
We hire coaches who are teachers and carers first, footballers second; we build game intelligence from the youngest ages; and we offer a real pathway from age 3 to 18 rather than just early-years sessions.
Ali El Jishi, a former player in England who moved to Dubai in 2012 and founded TFA in 2016 to build the player pathway he felt the city was missing.
Development, deliberately. We compete and we love to win, but our priority is long-term growth — players who still love the game, and make good decisions, years from now.
No. Every child matters here and every child gets real minutes — beginners, late developers and advanced players alike.
Every coach must meet three criteria, in order: be a teacher, genuinely care, and know football. We develop the whole child through game-realistic play, prioritise long-term development over winning, and coach character as deliberately as technique.
TFA’s founder and technical director. A former player in England, he moved to Dubai in 2012 and founded TFA in 2016 to build the long-term player pathway he felt the city was missing. He writes and speaks regularly on coaching, culture and youth development.
That’s for you to judge — which is why every new player gets a free trial. Watch how our coaches talk to your child, and you’ll feel the philosophy in action within minutes.