Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Staffordshire: Grassroots football in Asia received a boost as representatives from the continent took part in a recent UEFA Study Group Scheme held at St George’s Park, England.
The Study Group Scheme is the European football governing body’s innovative programme of technical exchange between nation associations and thanks to the ongoing understanding between the AFC and UEFA, nine delegates from Asia took part in the programme from June 9 to 12.
In the Study Group Scheme, an initiative of UEFA President Michel Platini and in which all of UEFA's 54 Member Associations are involved, federations visit one another to share knowledge, experience and best practice in four areas – coach education, youth, women's and grassroots football.
The goal is to facilitate the greater exchange of technical know-how and raise pan-European standards.
The delegation from Asia was led by AFC Grassroots Development Officer Masahiro Sugiyama and the delegates were Zeng Dan, Wang Xinluo (CHN), Suvrat Thatte, Anjana Turambekar (IND), Junko Imai, Kazuaki Hashikawa (JPN), Dien Bien Luu Quang and Thao Ngo Thi Xuan (VIE).
The other course participants were from the host association England as well as Denmark and Finland which provided a rich exchange of knowledge and experiences during the study scheme.
The three-day study scheme kicked off with a welcoming introduction by the FA’s Associate Director of Grassroots Les Howie, a UEFA welcome and introduction to the study scheme by Head of Education Services Frank Ludolph and presentations by various departments from the FA.
The exchange of views became even richer as delegation heads from the European and Asian Member Associations made presentations on their grassroots football schemes and provided a two-way traffic of information for the benefit of participating nations in both continents.
“We would like to thank UEFA, the FA of England and St. Georges Park for giving us such great opportunity to participate in this seminar,” said Masahiro. “All our participants expressed their happiness and excitement to work together with delegations from England, Denmark and Finland.
“Our participants enjoyed the benefits from the seminar in terms of information sharing, networking and introducing their grassroots programmes. They were also proud of participating in the event as representatives of Asia contributing to European FAs. I believe this opportunity motivates our participants to further their efforts in grassroots football in their countries.”
China’s Zeng was equally positive and called for more such opportunity for other Asian Member Associations. “The information on how to develop grassroots football from Denmark, Finland and England is absolutely valuable for our FA in implementing further development of our grassroots football,” Zeng said.
“Information on monitoring and evaluation, national game strategy, licensed club coaches club will be useful for our development of coaching for grassroots football. We believe that further opportunity for AFC Member Associations to be involved in such events by UEFA will help Asia to develop our games.”
Thatte of India said: “This kind of opportunity to participate in the event is beneficial for us to know the best practices in Europe. We would like to see how we can adapt these practices to our programmes and situation in India. Sharing knowledge and experience of FAs in Europe will be valuable not only for India but also other Members Associations in Asia.”
Vietnam’s Dien was happy with the info learned which would pave the way for Vietnam to make more grassroots cooperation with other organisations, saying: “Firstly, information sharing is very helpful for us to develop our programmes. Secondly, networking will be also great helpful for us to create more opportunities to develop our grassroots football in Vietnam.
“Especially, the info on managing football clubs and systems to motivate all stakeholders in grassroots football is great to know. And we are very happy to share with European FAs on what we have done in Vietnam for grassroots football under cooperation between the Vietnam Football Federation and Norway FA for 10 years. Networking in this seminar may help us to seek further opportunity to make more on such cooperation in the future.”
Imai from Japan saw an opportunity to invite all cross-sections of society to the beautiful game. “This opportunity let learn and feel the real means of football for all,” Imai said. “The presentations in the seminar taught us that it is important to provide all, from children to adults, with opportunities to enjoy football for better life. Football can make people happy, this is one of the things we learnt through this seminar.”