Desirous of lifting Nigeria football right from the lower cadre of the domestic league, Aspire Foundation is sponsoring a five-day coaching clinic organised by the Nationwide League One in conjunction with Berackiah, Completesports.com reports.
No fewer than 23 coaches , three FIFA badged Instructors and NLO officials are taking part in the five-day coaching clinic.
The ‘retrain the trainer’ clinic precedes the 2021/2022 NLO season which kicks off next month, March. Holding at the Conference Room of the Anambra State Sports Commission, Awka, organisers say the clinic is aimed at equipping coaches especially at the grassroots level to enable them impact the right qualities on young talents for a good start in their careers.
Sponsored by Aspire Foundation through Anambra State Football Club Owners Association, ANSFCOA, immediate beneficiary of the coaching clinic would be ‘My Anambra Football Super 8 Tournament’ which is billed to kick off soon, despite that no tentative date has been slated.
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Recall that In 2021, football in Anambra witnessed the pilot coaching clinic organised by Berackiah in association with Abigol, which was sponsored by Aspire Football Club through Aspire Foundation.
Declaring the clinic open, the Acting Chairman of Anambra State Football Association, Sir Victor Aniekwena, who stood in for Tony Oli, Chairman of Anambra State Sports Commission, described Berackiah and NLO as partners in progress in the effort to develop football in Anambra State and country from the grassroots.
Aniekwen paid tribute to Aspire Foundation for their untiring efforts and hoped that the clinic will serve as a guide for the coaches to ‘learn, refresh and upgrade’ in order to properly execute their jobs and career.
“No doubt, this is a good time for you to fish out the coaches who are eager to impact on the emerging young talents. “This initiative will help ANSFA [Anambra State Football Associaion] to revolutionarise football in the state.
“It’s hoped that this five-day empowerment program will serve as a guide for the coaches to enrich their knowledge for their coaching career,” Aniekwena said.
Former Nigeria U17 national team, Golden Eaglets coach, Alphonsus Dike, who is one of the resource persons described the NLO/Berackiah Coaching Clinic as a ‘commendable project’, stressing that ‘it is a veritable tool towards galvernising football at the grassroots’.
The former Rangers, Heartland and Jasper United gaffer pointed out that the exercise will, no doubt, help in tackling fundamental problems associated with football development in the country.
“It’s a laudable program in the sense that they (the organisers), are trying to get to the grassroots coaches so that they would be able to implement all the knowledge, that coaching football, players at that level should know, how football is played, that’s the fundamental stage of football,” Dike explained.
“And when the players don’t get the rudiments of the game at that stage, there’s a problem. In other words, the foundation is faulty. Sometimes you see most of the players on the pitch doing the wrong thing; they can’t trap the ball well, can’t pass the ball well and you realise the problem is fundamental.
“So, this NLO/Berackiah Coaching Clinic is aimed at getting the coaches who handle such players at this level to impart the basic knowledge in them so that they will be able to transfer it to the players so that the standard of football will develop, players will develop and standard of the game will develop.
“That is the is the essence of this programme,” coach Dike explained.
The coaching clinic will end on Sunday, 20 February, 2022.
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