Republic of Ireland’s Under-15 national football team ended a successful week long visit to Qatar with Head Coach Vincent Butler suggesting that the country’s innovative approach to youth development is “something that a lot of other countries should try and emulate.”
Butler’s team were hosted at the ASPIRE Academy for Sports Excellence, a facility unrivalled in the region and beyond that offers its student athletes a unique academic, social and sporting learning environment.
Now into its third successful year of operation, the Academy is designed to discover, train and inspire student athletes across the region.
Three matches were organised between the visitors and teams from ASPIRE, with Ireland, who recently held their Dutch counterparts to a draw, coming out as narrow 2-1 winners in a closely fought series.
ASPIRE follows a philosophy of exposing its students to the highest standard of international competition as a means giving them the greatest experience possible of what standards are expected from boys selected for their potential to go on and become the sporting champions of tomorrow.
“I was impressed by the standard of the ASPIRE teams because you have a limited selection; there is only a small population in the country,” said Butler.
“And physically, at this age, European lads are bigger than Middle Eastern boys but they matched us well. There were some small lads in the middle of the field who were intelligent and used the ball well. I was very impressed.
“I’m going back to Ireland now and I won’t be able to describe ASPIRE; there’s nothing to compare it with. Everyone has been very hospitable towards us – we really enjoyed our stay.”
The visit of the Irish team marks only the beginning of a series of visits from top level European youth teams this coming year that will include Celtic, English Premier League club Charlton Athletic and current European Champions FC Barcelona.
“Our boys benefit from visits like this by gaining experience of playing against top quality opposition, and that is invaluable,” says ASPIRE’s Head Football Coach, Michael Browne.
“It also gives us a chance to gauge how our boys are progressing. Ireland are an excellent national team so it is a good yardstick to see how our players are fairing. Overall we are very pleased with how they are coming along.”
“The Irish staff are very professional, and their players’ behaviour was excellent. They try and play football in the right way and we are very pleased they came and had a useful experience themselves.”
ASPIRE, the Academy for Sports Excellence, Doha, was created with the dual aims of identifying and transforming promising student athletes into world renowned champions across a wide range of sports and to act as a beacon to draw sporting culture into the centre of life in Qatar and the surrounding region.
The Academy is distinguished by a philosophy which aims to develop the whole student, providing them with full academic, social and sporting development.
Unrivalled facilities mark the Academy out as one of the world’s foremost sporting and educational institutions, and entice an ever increasing number of visitors from across the spectrum of world sports to use or simply view them. These same facilities will also play host to events during the forthcoming Asian Games 2006.
With one indoor and seven outdoor football pitches, athletics tracks, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, diving pool, combat arenas, gymnastics arena, specially designed weight rooms, lecture halls, dormitories to accommodate what will eventually become 1,000 students, a medical centre and more besides, much beneath the world’s largest purpose built indoor sports dome, every aspect of the development of elite athletes is catered for. ASPIRE is a place for those who dare to dream.
ASPIRE TODAY, INSPIRE TOMORROW
www.aspire.qa
