Civics plans top class football academy

BUSCHSCHULE Civics Football Club hosted the director of the Soccer Academy of Austrian Premier League Club Sturm Graz, Dietmar Pegam, last week to look at the viability of the infrastructure for an international youth football academy in Windhoek. Pegam arrived in Namibia on Wednesday to specifically look at the infrastructural developments on an anticipated youth development project.

Civics competes in the Namibia Premier League (NPL), winning three consecutive titles in the last decade, and were identified as the best possible link to form a partnership in setting up the football academy.

The project, a first of its kind in Namibia and southern Africa, will mainly focus on developing young talented footballers who will go through technical and tactical training from the young age of 7 to 15 years and upwards at the Concordia College. The concept emanated between the first scientifically based Southern Africa Soccer Academy (SASA) and Civics.

SASA is a brainchild of European- based individuals who have interests in youth football development in Africa and they are currently partnered by Unger Steel, an Austrian steel company as well as the University of Applied Sciences, FH Joanneum, also based in Austria, as well as Civics.

Pegam visited Concordia College football fields (a Windhoek-based high school) where Civics in partnership with SASA aims to set up a football academy that will also include accommodation and conference facilities. At a press briefing, Pegman said he was impressed by the condition of the premises where the academy will be built, despite the school only having one training field at the moment.

?Of course there is still a lot to be done if this is to be realized, but I am so far happy with what I saw and believe that this project could be realized if all the partners are involved.?

He said his role once involved in the project is to identify young talent, as he is also a scout, for possible inclusion in top European clubs. Sturm Graz, a leading Premier League club in Austria, has so far been identified as a possible partner for investment and football d zevelopment purposes.

Buschschule Civics director, Helmuth Scharnowski, noted that any other sponsors or investors are also welcome to join the initiative, as he believes that it will further ignite Namibian football into a more professional status by first starting with development at a young age.

?For this project, we looked at developing and organizing ourselves first by having at least a structure in place and then we looked at possible investors and partners who could make this project viable and the third aspect, will be to develop the rough diamonds into international football stars,? he said.

Scharnowski said Namibian players from a young age already show technical and tactical abilities, but need to be honed and their skills need to be further developed, especially while they are still young.

?That is the main purpose of this academy. We want to make a change and better the lives of young talented players so that they can become top footballers one day and make a living from this game,?? he said.

Pegham also attended the Brave Warriors? international friendly match against Malawi at the Sam Nujoma Stadium on Wednesday. He will also attend training sessions of different youth football teams, which also includes a Youth Development Tournament by Sport Klub Windhoek (SKW). Once constructed, the academy will also cater for the educational needs of the players while they are involved in football.