Botswana chosen for FIFA's pilot school project
Mqondisi Dube | Friday May 24, 2019 12:24
FIFA officials are in the country ahead of the launch of the Football For Schools project, which will be spread worldwide by September.
The project is aimed at skilling up to 700 million children, both boys and girls, worldwide, and FIFA has set aside a $120 million budget over the next four years.
FIFA grassroots and youth development manager, Philip Zimmermann said Botswana, together with Rwanda and Mauritania, had been chosen as one of the three countries for the pilot project, due to its grassroots development programme. “Botswana was chosen because of its already existing grassroots structures.
It was also selected due to its vastness. We want to find out what challenges would be there to spread the project, in a vast country, but with a few population,” Zimmermann told Mmegi Sport after a media briefing at Lekidi Centre.
Briefing journalists, Zimmermann said Botswana will receive 3,500 soccer balls, and funds to sustain the project.
The Botswana Football Association (BFA) is expected to choose schools that will benefit from the programme and send names to FIFA for approval.
Teachers at the chosen schools will be empowered through a mobile coaching application, and this will enable them to train children, even without specialised coaching training. “The BFA is keen to grow football. It is important to provide content to educators, such that even those without coaching licencing can be able to use the mobile application,” Zimmermann said.
In the project, FIFA has partnered with UNESCO and the World Food Programme.
Zimmermann said there would be periodic audits “to see where the money and balls end up”.
Botswana Integrated Sports Association (BISA) president, Joshua Gaotlhobogwe said the programme was critical for the development of soccer in schools.
“It fits into the BFA president’s vision, what he wants to do. Maybe in 10 to 15 years we will be somewhere,” he said.