by Charles Gladden
BELMOPAN, Thurs. Feb. 15, 2024
Today, Thursday, February 15, the Football Federation of Belize (FFB) held a press conference at its Headquarters in Belmopan to commemorate the Generation Amazing Foundation (GAF), which has been operational since 2022.
As mentioned above, the GAF has been ongoing for about two years with approximately 10 countries across the CONCACAF region participating in the program. The GAF is the flagship human and social legacy program of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and Concacaf to enable Concacaf/ Member Associations to optimize their grassroots coach education curriculums and provide more local coaches with the skills they need to deliver fun, safe, and engaging football sessions for young people in their communities.
“Today marks a pivotal moment as we gather to share inspiring stories and initiatives about this amazing program and what it is doing in our country,” said Earl Jones, General Secretary at FFB.
“This program is focused on the grassroots of football, the entry points to football, where we all fell in love with the sport; and that happens because people put things in place to ensure that young people have access to the sport and that they fall in love with the game. That’s our focus for this project,” said Jason Roberts, Chief Football Development Officer at CONCACAF.
A Youth Football Festival was occurring simultaneously with the press conference outside on the football pitch with over three hundred children participating in drills led by coaches under the tutelage of GAF.
President of the FFB, Sergio Chuc told the media that FFB is focusing on the educational part of the program.
“The program has different aspects. What we in Belize focused on was the educational part of getting training for coaches, specifically primary school teachers who are already in the educational system. So, the program adopted 25 primary schools throughout the country and we have provided equipment, footballs, cones, bibs and, most importantly, we have provided coaching certification for the primary school teachers to work with these kids,” he said.
“We need to have as big a base as possible, but more importantly, we have to have people with the know-how, with the knowledge of how to train these kids in systems, in how football systems are played; and we are focusing on having these educators prepare themselves well, and then they will pass on that knowledge to the kids,” Chuc added.
GAF is on the path to expanding to 20 countries, with its goal by 2026, for all 41 CONCACAF Member Associations joining the program to have over 100,000 children and 1,000 coaches.
Chuc further mentioned that the program will transition to the secondary level, but in a different form through funding with FIFA and FFB.