Doha:The Qatar Football Association’s (QFA) Football Development Department held a press conference in collaboration with Chelsea Foundation and Yokohoma Tyres, the principal club partner, to launch the joint QFA-Chelsea Foundation Coaching Clinic.

The press conference was attended by Fahad Thani Al Zarraa, Director of Football Development Department at QFA, Zak Wooster, Head Coach at Chelsea Foundation, Takeshi Harada, General Manager at Yokohama Tyres Middle East, and Karunakar Menon, Divisional Manager at Ali Bin Khalifa Al Hitmi & Co., distributors of Yokohama Tyres.

Held from 7 to 11 April, Chelsea foundation Coaches shall deliver coaching on the opening day to expatriate children from schools followed by intensive coaching clinics to promising young players representing Clubs under QFA and coaching workshops to expat coaches who are sports teachers from various schools around Qatar, as well as coaching workshops to coaches from Qatari clubs.

While the coaching workshops for expatriate coaches were held on the opening day at the Messaimeer Sports Club, coaching workshops for the QFA’ s Professional Coaches were held from 8 April at Duhail Sports Club and Mesaimeer Sports Club and will continue until 11 April, and the clubs’ sessions for the players took place at Aspire’s pitches 3 and 4 starting from 8 April and are planned to continue until 11 April.

The coaching clinic will see the participation of more than 120 players between the ages of 10 and 14, and shall be delivered by Zac Wooster, Head Coach and four Coaches at Chelsea Foundation, and over 74 coaches from Qatar.

The coaches from Qatar who are taking part in the coaching clinic include Pro license coaches, D License coaches, and D license candidate coaches. Some of the coaches participating in the coaching clinic from Qatar are Djamel Belmadi, Sami Traboulsi, Philippe Burle, Amine Frikha, Aberrazak Hedider, Dragam Tadic, Silvio Diliberto, Ouajdi Boussarsar. There are also be coaches assisting Chelsea Foundation’s coaches in delivering the sessions to the young players, those include Wissam Rizk, Wael Gomaa, Mohamed Aboutrika, Said Al Basheer, Ali Al Ahraq, Younes Ali, Ezzat Gadoo, and Abdullah Koni. Lastly, a list of D License and Pro License coaches including Jawad Ahannach, Ahmed Muhegri, Abdullah Maarafi, and Saleh Al Deery are taking part in theoretical sessions delivered by Chelsea Foundation’s Zak Wooster.

The QFA-Chelsea Foundation Coaching Clinic is an example of the fruitful technical partnerships that QFA signs with various football associations, academies, and clubs around the world and highlights the QFA’s Football Development Department’s ongoing objectives in constantly developing football in Qatar.

Taking place in Qatar for the second consecutive time, the coaching clinic aims to benefit local coaches by giving them the opportunity to learn specific skills and techniques that will benefit them in the future and also provides a real opportunity to update the Qatari football system, in particular the local coaches in Qatar, of the modern coaching methods and philosophies used in Chelsea Foundation’s development philosophies.

Fahad Al Zarraa commented: “The coaching clinic is a great learning experience for the coaches and players and being held in Doha for the second consecutive year reflects the great confidence that Chelsea Foundation has in the Qatari football system. Partnering with advanced football academies that have a unique coaching methodologies such as Chelsea Foundation gives the opportunity for many of our players to diversify their football knowledge and technical abilities and helps to develop it in an ideal manner to help them in the future.”

He added: “One of the most important objectives of this coaching clinic is to expand the fundamentals of the technical partnership between the Qatari clubs and the Chelsea Foundation, which possesses one of the most important academies for football development around the world. It also seeks to create a permanent technical partnership in terms of exchange of knowledge and expertise, workshops and specialised training courses for different age group players.”

Joining Chelsea FC in 2009 and developing international projects across the globe ranging from Soccer Schools to Sponsorship activation, Zak Wooster, International Football Development Officer at Chelsea FC specialises in coaching elite players and leading specialised clinics for coach education, and delivers the club’s philosophy to a wide variety of players and coaches across the world.

Zak Wooster, International Football Development Officer at Chelsea Foundation said: “The Academy’s presence in Doha for the second consecutive time in a row is aimed at launching a unique training program to delivers the club’s philosophy to a wide variety of players and coaches in Qatar, by allowing players and coaches to spend the most enjoyable times and learn the latest training methods of the foundation.”

He added: “We are keen to engage with the largest number of coaches from Qatar in order to help them learn the Chelsea way of coaching so they can transfer their experiences and knowledge with the rest of the other players. The aim of the coaching clinic is to learn more about the coaching culture in Qatar and the young players’ potential, teach them different methods.”