'Carry the ball close to your hearts'

The 8th UEFA Grassroots Workshop has come to a close, with the curtain brought down on the three-day event in Hamburg following another packed and varied day of activities.

Discussion group feedback
Timo Huttunen, grassroots director of the Football Association of Finland, was the first on stage, presenting the feedback from Wednesday's six discussion groups. The topics discussed were the age at which eleven-a-side becomes the chosen match format, specific training for children's coaches, the main difficulties facing children's football today, suggestions for associations to improve the quality of development in children's football and ideas for UEFA to stimulate further progress in this field were all covered. There were many varied and thought-provoking responses.

Professional role
There followed a study of the role of professional clubs in relation to children's football, with UEFA football development consultant Robin Russell using the English example by looking at the approach in that country between 1986 and 2009. He illustrated the success of the scheme by pointing out the rate of expansion – the first 14 community officers were appointed at professional clubs in 1986; 23 years later that figure has reached 500 full-time staff with more than 900,000 children involved in activities put on by more than 90 clubs every year. Jörn Spuida (Hamburger SV), Roger Hasenbein (FC St. Pauli), Hansi Müller (VfB Stuttgart) and Roberto Samaden (FC Internazionale Milano) provided specific examples of community schemes and grassroots activities run by their respective clubs.

Story so far
The UEFA technical director Andy Roxburgh then gave a presentation entitled 'UEFA's Grassroots Programme: the story so far', looking back at the 14 "building blocks" that have been put in place since the scheme started back in 1995. "It's difficult to know where you're going if you don't know where you've been," Roxburgh told his audience. "This is about the story so far – the future is up to you. With your cooperation the next phase of development looks very positive indeed. It's all about developing young people and our game."

Grassroots news
The afternoon session began with a round-up of grassroots news from around Europe, a series of short presentations including a review of the EUROSCHOOLS project at UEFA EURO 2008™ by Johannes Axster of streetfootballworld. Scottish Football Association (SFA) technical director Jim Fleeting talked about a boost for grassroots football in his country entitled the Scottish Positive Coaching Programme while Piet Hubers, the director of amateur football at the Royal Netherlands Football Association, spoke about the Dutch campaign to keep veterans in the game. Jeff Davis, national development manager at the Football Association, and Stuart Sharp, disability football manager at the SFA, presented their respective approaches to disability football participation. The grassroots news ended with an update on the UEFA website's Training Ground section, including the new TactX tool.

Closing ceremony
The final presentation of the workshop involved members of the UEFA Grassroots Panel, who looked at the next steps for the UEFA Grassroots Programme, in particular the star system which recognises association developments. The participants left the workshop with the UEFA slogan ringing in their ears: "Carry the ball close to your hearts." It seems certain that they will.