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WSF proudly presents... |
Dear friends of the World Sports Festival,
A long winter season finally started and we will definitely prepare in the best possible way for the upcoming year. It is not always easy to motivate yourself for a sometimes exhausting and hard training. Therefore it is absolutely necessary to set attractive targets that are worth fighting for and accepting these struggles. Especially with young athletes it is essential to offer concrete perspectives they can work towards.
The soccer tournament at the WSF is in the very lucky position to offer such a motivator: the English traditional club BRISTOL CITY FC. They confirmed their participation at the WSF 2012.
Use this chance and give your team the possibility to either compete against a professional team or just watch them play to get some precious tips for the following training sessions.
BRISTOL F.C. - portrait of the club
Currently Bristol FC is playing in the Football League Championship, in the second English League. The Asthon Gate Stadium (approximately 170 km west of London) is their home and a new, top modern stadium with 30 000 seats will be built soon.
Bristol FC was founded in 1897 and its biggest achievements were the reaching of the finals of the FA-Cup as well as a runner-up title at the beginning of the 20th century.
For several years now the club is a constant in the second league of the strongest football league worldwide.
Working with and for young talents is of big importance to Bristol. A youth center and an academy give boys and girls both from the city and the surrounding areas the opportunity to take advantage of high-class training facilities and to possibly be discovered by a scout. David Horseman , the Assistant Academy Manager of the Bristol FC, is highly involved in youth development and together with his U17 team he will come to Vienna for the World Sports Festival next year.
5 questions about football and the World Sports Festival:
1. England is actually ranked place 7 in the FIFA world ranking, Austria is 72nd. What do you think are the main reasons for this big difference?
I think the number 1sport inEngland is football, there is a big emphasis on school children playing it and the TV coverage is massive in this country. Because of this early exposure the participation is huge from 5 years old and older. There is also alot of funding going into grassroots level, which is helping to raise the standard of players. At the elite level, it helps that we have the number 1 league in the world and this then results in bigger funding for youth set ups. It is common place in the premier league and championship for there youth set ups to run a operation of well over 1million GBPs and are scouting the best boys all over the country and abroad. I also think our physical high tempo style at international level is something that many struggle to play against, pace and power play a huge part in English clubs recruitment. All these factor lead to a strong national team.
2. Last year 25 nations from all over the world competed at the World Sports Festival. Are there many football tournaments where young players have the chance to meet such a variety of cultures?
These tournaments are a invaluable experience for players and staff, we compete in several tournaments every year (holland, Sweden, Portugal) however none of these have such a variety of sports. These events are more important to assess the players personality than technique, how they bond with fellow players and staff is a good indication of how well they would fit into our older programme. Also playing under must win conditions and practicing the same principles is vital when assessing our players.
3. What are the requirements tob e admitted in your academy?
We assess the boys on 4 areas. Technique, intelligence, personality and Speed. When the selection process is taking place we base a lot of focus on Intelligence, personality and speed because we believe the technique can be improved the most.
4. How does women football develop in England?
Womens football is one of the fastest developing sports in this country, without having a great deal of knowledge on this, I know we have a very good centre in Bristol, who runs teams from 9 years - a ladies team (currently in the Champions league).
5. Which other Englishs clubs are important centres for youth football?
In terms of other English centres important to us, we have relationships with the likes of Chelsea, Aston Villa etc, but we don't rely on these to recruit players. Instead we run our own development centres around 1 hours drive from Bristol. If we scout a player, he will attend one of our development centres before coming into the main academy.
