Football Skills Training, Tanzania

Project name: Football Skills Training

Project location: Mbeya, Tanzania

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mpajusports/

Project description:

Football is a popular sport in Tanzania. However, a number of challenges are there to be addressed in order to fully benefit from football. The challenges include

• The difficulty in mentality change among the parents on the involvement of the children in the football. Women for example are hardly allowed to participate in the football.
• Inadequate Supports in terms of training equipment, grounds and expertise, especially in the outer-city areas like Iganzo.
• Absence of sports culture in the society. Football training and physical exercise is not common.
• Sports schools are not common in Tanzania. As a result children are not very familiar with the rules, ethics and laws of the game. This hinders professionalism in Tanzania football.

By undertaking Football Skills Training Project, Mpaju Sports Centre will utilize football to develop the talents of the children. This project will enlight parents with the positive side of the sports. It will show parents the economic and social benefits of investing in sports. By devoting effort to children, families are likely to be more united as well.

About 76 children (75 Males and 1 Female) have been temporarily enrolled, with three trainers (non-professional one). The lack of ground and classes are among the obstacles to the registration process. The estimated budget this year is about 90,000 Euro. The plan is to slowly use the available resources, perform better in competition, invest and acquire more fund for the organization. Finalizing the contracts to players, will enhance the chance to earn revenue through selling players (Group A- Aged 15-17). At the moment a Mpaju Hair Cutting Saloon has been opened and the Group A team is already waiting for the Airtel Rising star Competition which is a regional level.

Goal and purpose of the project:

This Football Skills Training project has the overall objective of teaching children the basic professional football skills. The specific goals in this project include
a) To Train children the basic 17 rules of football game in Mbeya City.
b) To raise awareness on the women football in Mbeya City.
The purpose is to develop the children football talents in Mbeya. The purpose relates to the mission of the organization, to discover and develop the natural human aptitudes. Mpaju Sports Centre strives to be the best collaborator of community groups for benefit of the people.

Motivation of the applicant / applicant team:

As I was living in Germany my son joined a team at the age of 3 years. The moments that I spent taking my son to the training and matches, taught me a number of things. Being in Tanzania, my son required me to play football together, as there were no kids of his standard. Remembering his trainers in Germany who insisted that my son has talent and I should not kill his will to play football, I decided to take this idea further by starting Mpaju Sports Centre so that, more children can benefit, and even if my son stop playing football, then the organization can proceed to benefit the nation at large.

Use of prize money:

The prize money expenditure will partly focus on project long-term objectives. The 35% of the prize will be directed into buy training tools, paying trainers and acquiring first aid facilities. 25% of the money will be directed into stimulating women football by running competitions, negotiating with parents and contracting players. The 40% of the prize will be directed into acquiring land or the plot (About 10 Hectare is needed) in order to facilitate registration and starting of the construction of the grounds and classes as part of the preparation of the Mpaju Sports Academy.