13 Academies Get FIFA Support

Thirteen Football Academies are set to benefit from a FIFA junior football support programme.

The academies qualified for the programme following their consistent supply of players to the junior structures of both the boys and girls Zambia national teams.

“Thirteen football academies in Zambia have been selected as beneficiaries under the FIFA Talent Development Football Ecosystem Analysis program,” FAZ spokesperson Sydney Mungala said.

“The Zambian academies will join others across the world on the project which is a Youth High Performance program.

“According to the strict selection criterion the beneficiaries were run through a seven-point process.

“Among the conditions were teams that have produced the highest number of players for the under-17 national teams for both girls and boys in the last five years. The academies also must have at least three consecutive age groups like under-12, 14 including Under 17.

“Furthermore the academies must have participated regularly in youth competitions, have a regular weekly training program, have a director coordinator) and a minimum of three coaches.

“The final criterion was the presence of a centralized training facility.

“FIFA has appointed world acclaimed Double Pass as the supervisory company for all the academies in the world.

“After the selection the next step will be for Double Pass to contact successful academies for an analysis of their operations. The online survey will reveal the level of kind of support that each of the academies requires. Support will not be uniform but tailored to the requirement of each individual academy.

“Double Pass will do a world report for all the academies across the globe with a county report available for individual nations.”

The girl’s academies are Bauleni United Sports Academy, Yasa Girls, Pataki, Choma Warriors, Queens Academy and Luyando Foundation.

The boy’s academies are Blaze Academy, Athletico, Morkeved, Red Arrows, Kafue Celtic, Modern Skills Academy and Superade Academy.