Forty seven coaches from 33 member Federations attended the second year of the FIBA Europe Coaching Certificate (FECC) which took place in Greece, Jul. 27 - Aug. 3.

The lectures coincided with the U18 European Championship Men, held in the towns of Pyrgos and Amaliada in Southern Greece.

The FECC is a three-year programme aimed at coaches of young players and focuses on the development of talent in Europe.

It was created two years ago and it aims in encouraging and educating coaches to work with youth teams.

"We have a lot of good coaches in Europe but we need to work more [more with them getting involved] with young talent," explains the concept behind the FECC, its Coordinator Michael Schwarz.

"And these coaches they should get an idea of what actually the level of competition is at youth level, so what better place to be in order to see that than the European Championships."

The FECC participants have a chance to follow the same generation of players as they compete in different age categories. They started the programme, attending the U16 European Championship Men in Crete last summer, they continued with the U18 this year and they will finish with the U20 next year.

"This way [the FECC participants] not only register the status of players but they have a chance to follow their development," adds Schwarz.

Click here to watch Michael Schwarz explaining what is and how FECC works.

The coaches-tutors in Crete were FECC's mentor Svetislav Pesic, Nihat Izic (Head coach Turkey U20 men & Assistant coach Turkey senior men), Gordon Herbert (newly assistant coach at Toronto Raptors), Lucien Legrand (Technical Director of France's INSEP - Institut National du Sport et de l'Education Physique), Pablo Laso (Head coach of Alerta Cantabria Lobos, Spain).

"Europe has the best coaches in the world. We have talented players and coaches. But they need to develop even further. In FECC one of the goals is to give this opportunity to all coaches but especially to the ones where basketball is not at the highest level," says Svetislav Pesic about his decision to stand behind the FECC project.

"I support this concept and I enjoy my mission here because it is important that we improve the standard of coaching in Europe."

Click here to watch Svetislav Pesic explaining why he thinks FECC is important.