QFA and Aspire Academy join hands to bolster coaching education

Qatar Football Association (QFA) and the Aspire Sports Excellence Academy signed a co-operation agreement at the QFA’s Al Bidda Tower headquarters yesterday. The two organisations hope to advance the coaching education system and increase their collective expertise through the partnership. Secretary-General of the Qatar Football Association Mansour al-Ansari and Director General of the Aspire Academy Ivan Bravo signed the agreement in the presence of Fahd Thani al-Zaraa, Director of Football Development Department of the QFA, and Professor Valter De Salvo, Director of Performance Development and Football Sciences at the Academy.
Supporting and facilitating joint co-operation between the two parties and determining the framework for co-operation, the agreement hopes to significantly broaden the circle of knowledge that contributes to achieving the desired goals and invest in the expertise and capabilities available between the two parties to develop Qatari football.
The two parties have come to an agreement whereby the Qatar Football Association will host coaching clinics and the Aspire Academy will provide expertise in areas such as football players’ physical fitness, psychology, physiology, nutrition, hospitalisation, and physiotherapy.
Fahd Thani al-Zaraa, Director of the Football Development Department, said: “We at the Qatar Football Association seek to prepare and qualify coaches and raise the level of training programmes in clubs by spreading the culture of playing football throughout Qatar, and supporting partnership projects with institutions with common goals to improve the technical level of grassroots players in the country while crafting strategies for long-term sustainability”.Importantly, in November 2019, the Asian Football Confederation gave its stamp of approval to the Qatar Football Association’s coach education program all the way up to the “Pro Diploma” level.
Qatar is the only Arab country with professional-level accreditation from the AFC.