The Ministry of Sports and Youth has signed an agreement for sports cooperation with the Spanish club Real Madrid to establishing four football academies in the Province of Kurdistan, north of Iraq.
Real Madrid representative Miguel Mutton said in a press conference following the signing ceremony of the agreement in the City of Erbil on Tuesday that the four academies aim at developing youngster teams, coaches and training and administrative cadres and the academies will be distributed in the cities of Erbil, Dohuk and Sulaymaniyah.
According to this agreement which was signed by the provincial Minister of Culture and Youth Kaweh Mahmoud along with Mutton, the Spanish club will be overseeing the academies through the training of a local cadres in Spain and brought Spanish experts in the field of sports on a regular basis to oversee them.
“At this stage, it is important for both sides to enhancing self-confidence to those players who would join the academy as well as educate them, because it is the project’s first priority” explained Mutton.
Similar academies exist in 62 countries all over the world. At the same time, there are 190 other academic waiting and ready to be signed by Real Madrid.
“We have concluded the agreement and I want to assure you that during the next few months we will return back to Kurdistan to take things into action, I want to emphasize that these academies are very important to us.” Added Mutton.
He also noted that these academies will not be specialized with football only, though their major role will be so but they will associate with other sports and that Real Madrid is anxious and interested in building good personality not just a good player.
For his part, Mahmoud said that these academies will be distributed in cities in the region, adding that this joint work between the provincial government and Real Madrid would strengthen the basis of sports and serve the movement of youth in the province.
The four academies will accept at different age groups up to 17 years and there are four age groups. The official opening date will be next June and the places of the academies have been decided to be in the center of the three big cities.
The City of Erbil and the Kurdistan region in general enjoy the existence of modern infrastructure and facilities and have hosted a lot of football events including the Asian Youth and junior qualifications. Erbil hosted as well national teams’ matches in the framework of (FIFA).
*Source: AIPS
