FIFA organizes grassroots coaching course in Ghana

ACCRA - FIFA Friday rounded off a five-day training course in grassroots football for Ghanaian local coaches with a football festival involving 100 selected schoolchildren at the Accra Sports Stadium.

Twenty-nine participants from all the 10 regions of Ghana attended the course supervised by Ulric Mathot, a FIFA instructor from The Seychelles.

The course, which began at the Ghanaman Soccer Centre of Excellence at Prampram in the Greater Accra Region, some 60km east of the national capital, last Monday, formed part of the football association's aim to build the capacity of grassroots coaching, according to Francis Oti-Akenteng, technical director of the GFA.

Oti-Akenten expects the trainees to pass on the knowledge acquired to children in their respective regions or districts across the country to boost football development at the local level.

He prayed the GFA to set up a grassroots coach educators table at its head office and the regional capitals to coordinate and supervise the activities of these coaches.

"If we have a special table with youth directors in charge of grassroots, it will help the country in the future," he said, adding: "Without these ones, there will be no black stars."

The FIFA grassroots program is aimed at helping to develop the game at the grassroots level.

The program places at its core emphasis on the notion of both education and fun for the children and targets boys and girls aged 6-12 years through school, community and club initiatives.