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The Disneyland of Football

By Sam Jeffery

The Disneyland of Football:
How Qatar’s staggering ASPIRE Football Dreams programme has helped an oil- rich nation on its quest for footballing recognition, attracted criticism but ultimately challenged the nature of conventional youth scouting.

When thinking about Qatar, the immediate association made is about a Gulf nation rich in natural resources, affluent to say the least. It certainly wouldn’t be for its sporting prowess. The awarding of the right to stage the FIFA 2022 World Cup has gone a long way to thrust Qatar into the limelight, but perhaps not in the way in which the ruling al-Thani family would have envisaged. Yet it is the sincere intent of the family to invest heavily in creating a sporting legacy in Qatar, and constructing an image to leave a footprint on the global sporting stage. Examples of Qatari-backed success are just beginning to form – al-Thani-owned Paris Saint Germain were recently crowned Ligue 1 champions for the second year running, whilst just last year Just the Judge, owned by Qatar Bloodstock Racing, won a first Group One horse racing Classic. Yet it is the lesser known, though genuinely startling, ASPIRE Football Dreams programme that is changing the very face of football scouting, and may well ensure Qatar’s place at the table of global sporting acceptance.

When former Eastern Suburbs coach, New Zealand Knights manager and Fulham FC youth coach Paul Nevin stepped into the headquarters of Qatar’s ASPIRE programme in Doha back in 2007 he was blown away by what he describes as the “best facilities on the planet”. Paul had received a call from a long-time contact in the English game to say that Qatar were seeking elite international coaches to join an ambitious project that would put Qatar “on the map”.
“I’d initially planned on staying a year, gaining some more international experience, and moving on. I ended up staying five years; I worked in the Disneyland of Football“.

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ASPIRE Initiative
By way of background, in 2004, funded by the ruling al-Thani royal family in Qatar, the ASPIRE programme opened its doors with the steadfast intention of “developing champions for Qatar” across a range of sporting disciplines. With an “empty shell” to fill with the very best coaches the world could provide, elite performance experts from across the globe were lured to Doha; from the Australian Institute of Sport to France’s INSEP, industry leaders in Sports Science and sporting excellence were recruited.

Nevin joined the ASPIRE initiative in 2007, and discovered a footballing academy akin to that of a European club, but on a national basis.

“The ASPIRE academy runs from Under 9s through to Under 19s, with the intention of developing Qatari players for the national team. But one of the major flaws was a lack of competition locally to test the side against”.

Upon its inception it was not long before major European and international sides were being sent to Doha to take on the various age groups of the ASPIRE Academy.

“At the start of the academy the teams would lose 8, 9, 10-0; but by the end of the 5 years I was there – when we played teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG and the Brazil National Team – we’d be winning a lot of the games”.
Nevin was a senior member of a vast coaching team recruited internationally. With an effectively limitless budget and ambition to match, the al-Thani family invested in coaches from a staggering 34 different countries and from some of the most elite clubs in Europe.

“I had coaches working under me from clubs like Barcelona, Everton, Juventus and Ajax. It certainly wasn’t easy managing them all”.

With this elite structure in place Nevin and Co were tasked with scouting and developing all the potential Qatar had to offer. Given that Doha is effectively half the size of Auckland, after a finite amount of recruitment the footballing talent pool domestically was farmed to its maximum.

“We had the domestic programme up and running – our academy had all the mechanisms to work. That’s when Josep was brought in and Football Dreams started”, Nevin states.

Football Dreams
The “Josep” to whom Nevin refers is Josep Colomer, former Director of the Barcelona Academy La Masia, brought into the ASPIRE set-up as Head of Recruitment and charged with cementing ASPIRE as the world’s best football academy. Famously lauded as the person to have discovered Lionel Messi, Colomer is the architect of the Football Dreams programme.

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The colossal project, sponsored by Nike and partnered with UNICEF, is now in its fifth year, and offers young players (aged 13) from developing nations across the globe the chance of a scholarship at ASPIRE’s lauded academy. It was devised as a chance to develop the Qatari national side by allowing the home nation’s elite to train and “learn off the best” from around the world, whilst at the same time delivering a truly humanitarian project that conclusively falls under FIFA’s social principle that “football can assist the developing world and create a positive social impact”.

“We were giving young players the chance for a scholarship at the academy, a chance of superior education, to nurture them, and to give them a platform to go and succeed either in their home countries, in Europe or across the world”.

The numbers behind the project are as gargantuan as they are staggering. In the 2013 project as many as 750,000 youngsters were tested, across 60,000 matches, 80 playing fields and 15 countries (10 in Africa, 2 in Asia, 3 in South and Central America).

Nevin explains the logistics behind the numbers,

“Take Cameroon for example. ASPIRE would send coaches (mainly Spanish thanks to Josep’s links) and enlist around 6000 volunteers in Africa to do the initial scouting. Anything from 60-80,000 13 year-old children would turn up with their passports across 12 fields in the North, South, East, West of Cameroon.
This would be whittled down to 40, 20, and 10,000 and so on, until a final 50 were selected. I would then fly in along with a goalkeeping coach and physical coach and at the national stadium [in Yaoundé] we’d stage a week of tests and games. From the initial thousands, we would select 3 to come back to Qatar for the chance of a scholarship”.

And so such immense scouting occurs across Africa, in Central America, and in Asia. 3 of the best are selected from each nation and the lucky fifty are flown into Doha and the footballing “Disneyland” for a month of intense training, testing and game time. Only then are the very best 3 or 4 gifted the golden ticket and offered the full scholarship at ASPIRE. It is a process that defies belief in sheer magnitude and cost, but one that Nevin argues is both genuinely humanitarian and groundbreaking.

“Besides the obvious benefits of the scholarship, where ASPIRE Football Dreams has given a chance to players in places like Africa who would die for a chance to play football, it’s had other enormous impacts on these countries”.

Nevin points to examples such as the donation of hundreds of thousands of mosquito nets to malaria-affected areas of Africa; all the nets are embroidered with images of Messi and Andreas Iniesta to entreat youngsters to use them. He also highlights the perhaps unnoticed benefits of ASPIRE entering the less developed nations.

“When the 3 best 13 year-olds are selected to come from the 50 for the trial in Qatar, 47 are obviously left behind. Therefore countries such as Vietnam and Ivory Coast – countries that cannot afford elite football scouting and coaching – have now effectively had the best 47 players scouted for them”.

Furthermore the time spent by ASPIRE coaches, and funding provided to these nations, helps develop youth scouting systems and methods, all with the underlying benefit of assisting the respective FAs and national teams.
It should also be noted that those that do not make the final cut in Doha are given the opportunity to live and train at the ASPIRE Senegal academy, a place Nevin describes as “one of the most fantastic place I’ve ever worked”.

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Motives
Given the magnitude of the project it’s clear that successes are a not so much a target, but a prerequisite. Equally, with such an investment must surely come a sought end game?

When Football Dreams initially started sceptics chimed that Qatar was simply handing out passports to winners of the scholarship. This has been strenuously denied by Qatari officials and has certainly not proved the case. Andreas Bleicher, Chief Executive of ASPIRE Football Dreams stated “we are not requiring them [the scholars] to play for Qatar”.

It should be noted that any player wishing to adopt another nationality and be naturalised can only do so 5 years after turning 18, so effectively aged 23. Given that these are the very best young players from across the globe, it is safe to assume they will be selected by their home nations before the age of 23; an assumption given solid substance when you consider that 30 ASPIRE Football Dreams graduates have represented as many as 10 Home Nations at varying youth levels.

“It’s all about coverage. Qatar wants to be in the public domain, and become a valid footballing nation. PSG and Malaga are investments, and the Qatar Foundation is partnered with Barcelona, but Football Dreams can give Qatar world recognition.”

Whilst a number of ASPIRE graduates have represented their home nations internationally there are yet to be any major breakthroughs in a European club. Nevin argues that once this happens then ASPIRE will have the true recognition it seeks.

“It would put them on the map. A role model to play in a bigger team would be massive”.

Scepticism
When Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup there was an enormous amount of criticism levelled at both FIFA and the chosen hosts. Accusations of corruption and vote- buying were rife but have proven unsubstantiated. The Football Dreams initiative certainly came under the microscope, particularly when considering that a number of the countries that sit on FIFA’s Executive Committee (that decides where the World Cup is staged) are also places in which ASPIRE undertakes its scouting.

However there is no evidence to suggest foul play, and in fact one could go so far as to say that it would make good business sense to illicit a level of awareness from potential voters, much like a politician canvassing for votes ahead of an upcoming election. In practice, if Qatar’s ASPIRE undertook a humanitarian project that clearly provided much needed funding and infrastructure benefits in a downtrodden country, it would seem perfectly justifiable to look favourably on them as a nation.

There is no rule-breaking and nothing illegal, and in fact criticism should not tarnish the work that the Football Dreams programme has done and continues to do.

The Future
Having left last year (he will join Norwich City ahead of the coming season) Nevin is able to look back fondly on an enormous improvement over the 5 years at ASPIRE.

“I took the 1994 group to Spain to play Barcelona, Villarreal, Espanyol, Valencia and both Madrid teams – we won every game.”

In the 2011 Milk Cup in Ireland – a tournament previously graced by some of the best young players (Messrs Beckham and Scholes spring to mind) – an ASPIRE side crushed Manchester United 5-1 in the final.
It would be fair to say that improvements have been vast, and there seems no reason to not continue this upward curve.

ASPIRE recently purchased Belgium second division side KAS Eupen and the squad now consists of 15 players from the Qatar based academy along with 2 from Senegal. Giving the players the exposure of being away from home, the comforts of a sheltered life in Qatar, and some valuable life experience is deemed pivotal to the ability to succeed. Of course given Belgium’s loose work permit regulations it will also help facilitate possible moves to other European clubs.

There have been marked successes for ASPIRE graduates, with over 30 representing home nations at varying levels. With an underlying goal to improve the standard of Qatari footballers through assimilation with the best talent the world can offer, it can be noted that players such as Muhammed Naim, Saad Al-Sheeb, Ibrahim Majid and Fahad Khalfan have all gone on to represent Qatar; all are graduates of ASPIRE.

With former ASPIRE coach Fahad Thani now managing the national side, and able to utilise first-hand knowledge of the up and coming players through youth ranks, it would appear the goal of creating Qatari champions may well be on track.

The Football Dreams programme is an outlandish proposition. No mere publicity stunt, it is the latest investment by the Qatari Royal Family to help facilitate a growing sporting superiority for aspiring Qataris, and to catapult this small Gulf nation into the spotlight for its sporting prowess.
It is an initiative that stretches the very boundaries of what can be achieved with the right personnel in charge, the right structure in place and of course necessary investment; Qatar’s Football Dreams is the most extensive scouting network the world has seen.

Of course to truly earn international respect, the results must appear credible, and whilst there are undoubtedly a number of successes at youth levels worldwide and within Qatar’s own international team, the need for an ASPIRE graduate to truly “make it” in a top flight team is still unfulfilled.

One suspects it is only a matter of time before this football dream is turned into a football reality.

Modest, mild-mannered, and masterful between the sticks: Meet Ernest Wong, ESAFC Number 1.

By Sam Jeffery

When you step into Madills Farm clubhouse, spiritual home of Eastern Suburbs AFC, it is impossible to miss the grand board on the wall which houses the names of all the Lilywhites players to have represented New Zealand at any level. One of the names emblazoned on said board is that of “E. Wong”. Wong represented his national team at the 2007 U17s World Cup and U19s Secondary Schools, and can now generally be found gracefully prowling and commanding the penalty areas of grounds up and down Auckland as the ESAFC number 1. For a man of 23 he has a perhaps surprisingly anecdote-laden career to date, and shared some of his experiences with me for this week’s ESAFC blog.

Having began playing in goal roughly 11th or 12th grade, and first joining Ellerslie, “Ernie” has enjoyed a steady stream of success which has seen him work his way up to undisputed Number 1 at the Eastern Suburbs, via worldly trips to Korea, the UK, Malaysia and Singapore.

Whilst goalkeepers are stereotypically recognized as being of a taller ilk, Wong is built slightly more diminutively, and bases his game on goalkeepers of similar physical stature.

“Huge Lloris or Iker Casillas – Schmeichel was the best ever, but I’d like to be like those two,” Ernie proclaims when questioned on his heroes and whom he aspires to be like. His fondness for the Frenchman Lloris also explains why Ernie sports the 25 on the back of his jersey, rather than the more traditional number 1.

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2006 marked the beginning of a fairly meteoric rise – which actually coincides (obviously) with when Wong joined Eastern Suburbs – and culminated in a call up to New Zealand U17s training camps and some game time against Tahiti.

When the squads were announced for the 2007 U17s World Cup in Korea, Ernie was selected, though the details of the call-up elude him.

“It was a really good feeling. The squad was picked but I’m unsure how I was told though! I didn’t get any game time but it was brilliant to be around some of the players”.

Wong is alluding to a number of now-recognised players that play at the highest level.

“I remember Victor Moses scoring and doing back-flips and stuff, and Danny Welbeck. They both scored two actually. And I remember the Rafael twins. The best player was the Spanish dude Bojan [who went on to represent Barcelona and Roma]”.

One moment from the World Cup really sticks in Wong’s memory.

“Memorable moment is definitely the Brazilian players stealing Powerades from our fridge. I was probably the only one that saw them though!”

Fresh from keeping his mouth shut following the scandalous Samba thievery, Ernie returned to Auckland and in 2008 was soon jetting off to England for a collection of tour games arranged by former Auckland City player Paul Seaman (no relation to ponytailed goalkeeping maestro David). Games included West Brom, Colchester, Northampton Town, Charlton and Fulham and Ernie, despite being based in Luton – a town that makes Invercargill look like a glamorous holiday spot – speaks highly of his time in the UK.

“It was a really good experience and I felt a lot sharper when I came back to New Zealand. We were just playing proper games, not coaching clinics or anything. It was great.”

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World Cups and playing against professional English teams are one thing, I hear you cry, but what about the Eastern Suburbs!? In 2009 Wong broke into the Suburbs Reserves for the first time and actually went on to win Player of the Year, though forgot to attend prize-giving.

“I never got my trophy I don’t think”, Ernie chuckles; note to C. Ruffell – pull out the archives, dig into the vaults, let’s find this dust-ridden award.

Recognisable by now due to a ninja-like pony-tail Wong’s stock at Madills continued to rise through the 2010 season and he would soon become Premiers No. 1 the following year.  Barring a minor hiccup it is a position he has held ever since and having returned from yet another overseas adventure at the start of this year, Wong is in as good a form as ever.

“My coach had some contacts in Singapore”, Ernie explains about his early-2014 trip to Asia, “he’d said he could help me get some clubs to train with hopefully.”

Despite training with a club named Geylang International and another called Tampines Rovers, Ernie was convinced it was a dead-end as there was some understandable reluctance from the locals to just let a seemingly random player train.

“I was about to end it there and have the last week to holiday but another contact in Malaysia invited me to train with a team called Kelantan – who’d won the treble a couple of seasons before and the Cup that season.  I trained with them for a week and trained with the best 3 keepers in Malaysia.”

From being despondent in Singapore to getting tips from Malaysia’s number one, Ernie returned to Auckland with another international anecdote and has seen this season’s Eastern Suburbs side roar to the top of the table.

When questioned on the team’s chances, the conviction is clear.

“It’s the youngest team I’ve been involved in, and I’m certain we will win the league”.

Such a forthright declaration bodes well for the remainder of the season, and the Suburbs will hope Wong’s performances remain in “keeping” (pun intended) with his career to date; interesting, enjoyable and ultimately successful.

Floodlight at the end of the tunnel

There was great news last week with the announcement that resource consent has been granted for the total flood lighting of Glover Park. Coupled with the renewal work at the ground, this will have significantly positive impact on our training.

Work began early February by the contractors and they are making good progress on site, despite being hampered at times by dust conditions caused by the very dry weather. The recent rain has allowed work to continue this week.

Significant gains have been made with the irrigation system now installed, but at this stage we do not have a connection to the water supply. The new footpath around the fields is about 80% complete and the main earthworks were completed some time ago. Horticulturists among you will be pleased to note that the kikuyu is regenerating nicely.

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The main and collector drains have been installed, and only the installation of slit drains and sand carpet remains to be completed, which should happen within the month, subject to weather conditions.

Application for training lights has been approved subject to a number of conditions and the council will now go to tender for the installation of the lights in a few weeks’ time. There is (flood)light at the end of the tunnel thankfully.

The sports fields will remain fenced off once the drainage and sand carpeting are complete to allow the grass cover to establish properly and mature. The soccer games that are usually played on this park over winter have been transferred to Pt England Reserve for the season.

It’s with great pleasure that we can report all of the above and Eastern Suburbs will update you once we’ve got some finality around an official floodlit opening.

Eastern Suburbs – El Salvador Edition

Earlier this year New Zealand U-17s and Eastern Suburbs Premier Women’s player Jolene Muir embarked on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to El Salvador, in aid of promoting football to underprivileged locals. Jolene was kind enough to scribe her story for us here…

Since I was four years old, soccer has been a great passion of mine. Yet as I grew older I underestimated the number of opportunities that could arise from it. In my final year of college I was playing for the Eastern Suburbs Premier Women’s team, my college 1st XI and the NZ U17 Women’s team, as well as coaching at Eastern Suburbs. Upon graduation I didn’t have my future decided but knew soccer was always going to be a big part of it.

 

Almost a year later, I moved to Nashville, Tennessee to study and play soccer at Lipscomb University. It is a small Christian university with a new and developing soccer program, and I know I could not have made it here without my club and coaches support. However, the opportunities did not end there.

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Over our Spring break, March 14-21st, members from our soccer team travelled to El Salvador on a mission trip. Each individual had to fundraise for the trip and the support I gained from Eastern Suburbs was incredible. Working alongside Sports Outreach Institute, we spread the word of God by teaching and playing soccer with underprivileged children.

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We began our time at the soccer academy they run. This is run on Saturdays by volunteers and is free for any neighbourhood kids. With fields of dust and little equipment, it made us truly appreciate how well-off we are back home. Yet the things they lacked they clearly did not miss, as these were some of the most joyful children I have ever met. In the morning, we coached the younger boys, aged from about 4-8, and in the afternoon the older boys and girls. While the language barrier was difficult at times, through the use of a soccer ball it was made easier to communicate. We taught them games and drills before having a large scrimmage which, as expected, turned into boys tackling and jumping on us in order to score a goal.

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Later in the week we went to the local school, Nuevo Cascatlan, where we got to join in with classes P.E sessions and the children’s recess. Told we would be playing soccer with them, we all expected to see a shabby field somewhere, but there was none. There was no grass to run on or trees to climb; the school was probably the size of a regular soccer field and entirely concrete. There was a tiny concrete soccer pitch with metal goals and faded lines. Yet this was enough to keep them happy. Whether there were four people on the pitch or forty, there always seemed to be a game going on. Joining in here we met so many wonderful children and made so many friendships which will never be forgotten.

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It was not all about children though, as we got to meet and play with people our own age too. We played mixer games and got to know the women’s soccer team at ESEN University, which is a private business university in El Salvador. We also got to play with the El Salvadorian U20 National Women’s team, which was an incredible experience. Through both of these encounters we gained insights into life in El Salvador and got to meet some incredible people. We listened to their stories and shared our own, truly getting to know these new friends.

 

Looking back, it’s crazy to think how much one week impacted our lives. Through a simple soccer ball we were able to experience and share joy with these people, in the most unexpected circumstances. In New Zealand and America, these environments are rarely seen or heard of. Often we take for granted all we have. This experience was truly an eye opener and I am so thankful to all those who made it possible. 

 

First team draw, Reserves Triumph at Metro

Eastern Suburbs’ top two teams began their respective seasons with credible results away at Metro, at Michael’s Avenue on Saturday.

Despite initially going a goal down, the 1st team fought back well to first equalise (through a Nic Robson penalty) and then go on to dominate the game and will probably count themselves unlucky not to have gone on to win.

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The Reserves faired better on a scorching hot Auckland day, grinding out a 1-0 win thanks to a goal from young winger Ben Alan. Solidity at the back, coupled with a disciplined midfield meant the result was the least the Lilywhites deserved.

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Next stop Madills, and hopefully a continuation of the unbeaten start to the season

Anticipation grows…

It’s that time of year again. The time of year where optimism grows, new boots are unwrapped and excitement reaches fever pitch. After a summer of sunshine and siestas for the social players amongst us, and gruelling campaigns for the more skilled pros, it’s time to brace ourselves once again for the start of another season at the Eastern Suburbs.

After what feels like months of  reacquainting themselves with the lung-bursting, sweat-inducing rigours of  pre-season training,  the 1sts and Reserves kick off their respective campaigns next weekend against Metro FC at Michaels Avenue.

Across a raft of friendlies the relatively young 1st team has grown in stature and confidence, under the watchful eye of coach Mark Holt. A successful 1st team filters  down through the club and chairman Chris Ruffell believes the Lilywhites are destined for a good season.

“ESAFC are expecting a successful season with strong squads in the Mens and Womens Premier and Reserve teams. Furthermore with the two artificial turf surfaces being built at Ngahue Reserve, the expectation that we will have access to these grounds will overnight solve many of our training facility problems too”

Of course the start of a new season  also couples hand in hand with the need to spruce up the Suburbs changing rooms and club house. So under the all-seeing, all-knowing gaze of General Paul Marshall, ably assisted by Lieutenants Chris, Mike and Tony, this weekend saw the would-be superstars of the Eastern Suburbs reduced to painting, shoveling, wiping, sweeping and even unclogging, in the name of fostering team unity and giving Madills Farm a pre-season facelift.

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After hours of hard work (and conveniently devoid of coaches Mark and Drew…) the hardy Suburbers had restrengthened the foundations and polished the walls to Fortress Madills, where many battles will be fought (and won) this season, and earned themselves the rich reward of a Hells Pizza each.

The scene is set, the anticipation levels simmering away, and all that’s left is to stride forth into battle. It promises to be a great season up at Madills Farm.