GET YOUR KIT ON: SOCCER: EMMET MALONElooks at the beautiful game as part of his series on taking up a new sport or activity
WITH THE World Cup seeming to be almost as much about high finance these days as it is about football, some of the planet’s biggest multinationals have spent millions over the past couple of years to boost sales on the back of soccer.
All over the world, though, there are sports administrators who are aiming to flog the game itself and for them every shot, pass and glorious goal is a little bit of free advertising with kids the most willing when it comes to embracing the sales pitch.
For many, the obvious outlet will be to take a ball to the back garden, out on the road or over to the park. But for those intent on taking things slightly further, the FAI, along with quite a few others, is ready and waiting with hundreds of summer camps set to kick off up and down the country.
Needless to say, they are anticipating a major boost to bookings as the likes of Spain, Brazil and Argentina battle it out for the game’s biggest prize over the coming month.
With money tight and competition tough, prices are down a little on previous years, but the association, which has built a large market share over the past few years, is hopeful that numbers will rival the 23,000 or so who took part in its summer soccer schools a couple of years ago when Spain’s triumph in Euro 2008 inspired a lot of Irish kids to dream they might be the next Cesc Fabregas or Fernando Torres.
“Yeah, the numbers did pick up during the Europeans and they’re bound to again during the World Cup,” says Dave Connell, who oversees several of the association’s summer soccer schools in Co Westmeath.
“You look at your numbers and the next thing there’s a load more coming in because they’ve been watching the games on the television and you can see who has caught their imagination by the names of the players they want to put on the back of their shirts.”
The FAI schools have grown dramatically during the past decade with about 270 camps now taking place at 230 venues and Barry Gleeson, who heads up the programme at national level, believes their success is based on the trust people put in the game’s ruling body to deliver what he describes as “a quality product”.
All of the coaches taking part, he emphasises, are qualified to teach kids about the game with many of those running the courses possessing high-level badges. All are Garda vetted and there is a requirement for each summer school to have female coaches too, to help integrate the girls who take part in the courses.
The schools target kids from six up to 14 and the diversity among those arriving through the doors each week in terms of both age and ability can prove a major challenge to those charged with organising the course on a day-to-day basis and ensuring the kids derive some genuine benefits in terms of skills acquired.
But, insists Connell, “they’re good challenges and while some kids can become frustrated for a while by the fact that somebody else can’t do what they do, by and large what we see over the course of a week is that they pull together with the feedback tending to be very positive”.
Gleeson also points to research that shows that 30 per cent of participants are engaging with the game at an organised level for the first time and 80 per cent leave feeling more inclined to get more involved.
Not all, of course, will end up joining a club and playing regularly. But, for some organisers of non-FAI courses, one aim is simply to get them to come out and watch their local team. League of Ireland club Cork City Foras Co-operative is running schools for the first time this summer, and Kevin Mullen is hoping that contact with professional players will generate interest among participants that will translate into more bums on seats for the senior team through the latter part of the season.
“These camps serve an awful lot of purposes for us,” says Mullen who has seen just how well these things can work during his time in England with Barnet FC. “Obviously we want the kids to enjoy themselves and to learn a bit more about the game, but we’re also looking to build bridges with them and while most will have a favourite club in England, you don’t get the experience of meeting the players, getting pictures taken with them and getting coached by them at Old Trafford.
“Hopefully some of them might go on to play for Cork City some day but if 20 per cent end up as fans then that’s a bit of a result for us too.”
WHAT THEY SAY . . .
‘The courses are basically an opportunity to look at what decent training can be like but done in a fun environment” – Dave Connell, FAI Community Development Officer, Westmeath.
WHAT IT DOES . . .
DCU physiologist and exercise expert Dr Giles Warrington is enthusiastic about the FAI’s schools but stresses that the better summer camps run by other organisations and associations can be similarly beneficial.
“What the FAI is doing is, in part, based on the Player Pathway programme which was developed by the National Coaching and Training Centre,” he says. “It involves a recognition that not everybody is going to go on to reach the elite level of a sport and what you’re really trying to do is to equip the kids with a sort of literacy and numeracy of physical activity.
“It’s about helping the development of basic motor skills through games that involve the likes of running, jumping and throwing. The key elements are known as the ABCs: agility, balance, co-ordination and speed, it’s stuff that will stand to kids, and most of the associations are looking to help develop these areas in young kids so you’ll find their programmes are not too sport specific.”
WHAT IT TAKES . . .
Most of the courses cost about €90 with many, including the FAI’s, providing a kit for children as part of the package, so that they need only bring boots or runners and their lunch.
The football association’s programme also offers discounts for siblings and the chance to attend on subsequent weeks for €50 although no additional gear will be supplied.
WHERE IT’S AT . . .
There are countless camps with a football element to them in schools all over the country, and details are usually available from the venues. A list of venues for the FAI schools is available from the association’s website (fai.ie) along with booking requirements. Information on Cork City’s camps at Churchfield and Bandon is available from corkcityfc.ie.
