Alás centre a lift for Andorra
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Article summary
Future generations of players will benefit from the Andorran Football Federation's new Alás Sporting Centre, which opened for business on 29 March.
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Honoured guests
Built with the help of UEFA's HatTrick programme and the FIFA Goal project, the centre was opened in the presence of the Bishop of Urgell and Co-Prince of Andorra, Joan Vives, as well as the nation's state secretary for sport and youth Victor Filloy and FAF president Francesc Amat Escobar. A superb modern facility, it will help Andorra get the most out of their limited pool of players.
Fundamental aims
The Alás centre was devised with two fundamental aims in mind. The first was to provide a place to train and nurture local youngsters while the second was to improve the general standard of facilities for the national teams, to allow them to train together more often and for those training sessions to be of a higher standard. All those criteria would seem to have been fulfilled.
Latest generation
The main pitch which has been laid at the centre is of the latest generation of artificial surfaces, while the centre also features four dressing rooms for players, a room set aside for referees and match officials and an equipment room. Eventually, it will also host a medical unit, with equipment for urgent treatments as well as fitness and rehabilitation facilities.
High altitude
The Alás centre also houses the newest of the 14 mini-pitches that have sprung up in Andorra. The FAF has actively encouraged the building of these facilities, buying up land close to schools to set up the enclosed pitches, which provide safe havens for children to play football. A shortage of level terrain in the Pyrennean nation has made construction no easy task, and tellingly the mini-pitch at Pas de la Casa is the highest in Europe, at an altitude of 2,100m.
Small compromise
Geography also forced a significant compromise when it came to the building of the Alás centre, which is located in Spain rather than Andorra due to a lack of available land. UEFA's HatTrick project was launched in August 2003, and has distributed profits from the staging of UEFA EURO 2004™ to worthy footballing causes between 1 July 2004 and 30 June this year.