From 29 April to 10 May John Helt, Nenad Djabic (Bosnia) and Anders Levinsen was in India, New Delhi to kick off the Cross Cultures School Academy in cooperation with Soccer Foundation, India.
Whereas grassroots football in a European context is organised around a club structure/club culture the main gateway to grassroots football in Asia is within the elementary school system, as they are the main stakeholder that can provide access to facilities.
Hence Cross Cultures is in process of developing a special approach that looks after different aspects of the game:
- Football pre- and post school hours
- Football during school hours
- Football in school classes as part of the physical education
- School-team training
- Open Fun Football Schools, Fun Festivals, matches, competitions etc
The mission comprised a coach seminar for 22 local coaches in the specific Fun Football concept as well as 2 festivals for children on public schools.
– It was a very fruitful experience, John Helt tells – We met a lot of young dedicated coaches which we are looking forward to build on and develop and we experienced how well our unique concept was received by both children, the school teachers and not the least the parents.
– At one station I even saw some parents jumping into the game because they found the games so interesting that they also wanted to try-out.
– Maybe we will not be able to develop the program as quickly as we would have loved, but we are very optimistic and we go home with lot’s of new good friends in our organisation and committed to develop a special school academy within Cross Cultures, John Helt concludes.
