Meridian's helping hand
Friday 20 January 2006
e-mail
Print
Digg
Save
Players mix at the Meridian Cup in Turkey in 2005 (©uefa.com)
The growing links between European and African football are obvious. Many stars of the UEFA Champions League have their origins there, while the likes of AFC Ajax and KSK Beveren have forged strong links with academies on the continent. UEFA is also playing its part, supporting an assistance programme that for the last decade has helped develop the sport in Africa.
Confederations linked
Since 1996 the Meridian Project has linked UEFA with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in a variety of ways. The most high-profile has been the biennial UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup youth tournament, but that is just the tip of the iceberg and this year the programme is moving into a new phase.
Co-operation
When it first began the project had three strands: 'Direct Help', in which UEFA aided two national associations selected by CAF over a two-year period; the partnership programme linking executives from different national bodies; and the UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup. The latter was originally a competition bringing together the top four Under-18 teams from each continent, held every two years alternately in Europe and Africa. Mohamed Taa, UEFA's Meridian project manager, told uefa.com: "The aim of the project was to co-operate with CAF in order to help develop football on the continent."
Association assistance
Among associations to benefit from direct help were Ethiopia, Central African Republic, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe. They were given help by UEFA in the development of infrastructure, transportation, communication and administration, among other areas. The partnership programme, meanwhile, connected 17 European associations with 35 of their African equivalents, such as the English Football Association aiding Botswana, Lesotho and Malawi with coaching and refereeing courses, equipment and invitations for their national youth teams.
CAF praise
CAF football development director Abdel Moneim Hussein told uefa.com: "The partnership programmes assisted some associations in upgrading their human resources and helped in building a good football structure. The exchange of expertise gave a huge boost to the federations in different domains like coaching, sports medicine and administration. "
Meridian Cup
Providing the flagship presence for the project was the UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup, which over its five editions has provided experience of international football to the likes of Michael Essien, Iker Casillas, Simão and PFC CSKA Moskva's UEFA Cup-winning defender Chidi Odiah. But the tournament was not just about the competition itself, but gaining experience in a friendly atmosphere, not least as all eight teams stayed in the same hotel.
Players mixing
"For them it was a good opportunity to meet with other players," Taa said. "It was a good opportunity for coaches to have the whole team with them for two weeks - everybody stays together, there is an exchange between the players and the coaches. It's a new environment, and they learn how to behave with players from different nations." Essien, who took part in 1999, agrees, telling uefa.com last year: "For Africans it's important to play against [European teams]. And it's also great to get to meet each other."
New phase
After a decade, though, UEFA and CAF are refocusing the project with one word the key - education. Taa explained: "The first step is we invite African coaches, referees and educators to a course in Europe. The next step is these people who have been trained here will train the instructors in Africa. This new programme is pan-African; for the whole continent."
Invitations
Indeed, there were several African representatives at recent UEFA conferences for youth in Cyprus and women in Norway. "The feedback from African delegates who attended the recent UEFA Youth and Women conferences was great," Hussein said. "The reports that have been received from them reflected the fine benefit CAF is getting from these conferences in Europe; we can also do the same in Africa. The education-based stage is the most productive part of the Meridian project. It will improve the standard and quality of CAF instructors, the progress will be huge."
Barcelona event
The Meridian Project also takes a high profile at next month's anti-racism conference in Barcelona, the city where the new-look UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup will take place in 2007. Taa said: "This is a very good opportunity to have African and European players mixing together without any discrimination.
All-Star games
"We have also changed the format; it is now an All-Star [U18] team from Africa and one from Europe, 20 players from each continent. They will meet for one week. There will be two matches so all the players can participate in at least one of the games. We will invite all 52 youth coaches from both continents, they will attend the matches, have discussions and watch all the training sessions, and then a big conference. It is more educational."
Other links
UEFA continues to encourage the ties between associations that were built up under the previous phase of the Meridian Project, and while there are no such formal programmes with other continents, Asian representatives have attended recent UEFA conferences. But after a decade the special relationship between UEFA and CAF built up by the Meridian Project remains as strong as ever, nurturing the base of African football to ensure the summit continues to thrive.
©uefa.com 1998-2008. All rights reserved.
