| The Serious Soccer programme has been in existence since
February 2004, it was founded in order to bring the joy of
playing football to as many kids as possible, in their own
environment.
Our programme has grown
since then with many achievements and successes. One of our
biggest successes has been our `Football
First
` initiative, where we worked with a local
Youth Club here in Edinburgh and set up a Summer School in an
area where there was limited opportunity for local kids to
participate and enjoy soccer, we started with 4 kids and 10
weeks later there were over 50 kids involved, who are now
playing within the Club in 4 different teams
For 2005 we have entered an exciting new agreement with
Kelme UK to supply us with kit for all our Coaches and
Centres. Kelme are an
international sports goods manufacturers based in Spain who
manufacture top quality football kit, They are very keen to
support Grassroots football and we are delighted they have
chosen to support our
programme
During 2006 the programme suffered a setback due to over commitment of resources and the politics and costs involved in keeping sessions running, as a result a couple of centres have had to fold.
However, there were a couple of high spots during the past year. In the summer Edinburgh District Council purchased a portable pitch to be used in the East of Edinburgh, we were involved in supporting the council in involving the kids attending the Soccer Schools and supporting the sessions with additional coaching at the venue in Bingham park. The KITS (Kids in the Streets) initiative is now gaining momentum and we are looking forward to working with them in the coming months.
In the summer I was invited to put on a coaching session for a group of children from the Chernobyl region of Russia by the Friends of Chernobyl http://www.focc.org.uk/Edinburgh_(Portobello).html The session was held at Powerleague Portobello and the children were great albeit the different language was difficult the day went well and I hope to coach more groups next year when they visit Edinburgh
This year I have had the honour of being invited to be part of the Technical Committee for the Homeless World Cup , http://www.homelessworldcup.org/ this is a great organization with a tremendous impact using football as a means to address social issues. We are looking at how we can develop the HWC in football terms for the next World Cup to be held in Denmark later this year., considering things such as the rules, the surface used, type of ball etc. I believe that there is a great synergy between the HWC and our Football First programme and look forward to an exciting year
|
