PIFA Mumbai Lions finish fourth in Catalunya Cup 2013.

Premier India Football Academy (PIFA) organized their 31st Champions Tour from 18-29 June 2013 to Barcelona. This being their 10th year.

Catalunya's UEFA licensed coach Antonio Sánchez, one of the most qualified technical professional from the Spanish football youth academy, assisted by coach's Joseph Maria of the reputed Hristo Stoichkov Academy in Barcelona trained the campers for 5 days at a five star resort in the mountains of Seva. They visited Nou Camp stadium and FC Barcelona Museum during their stay here.

The campers then moved to Lloret de Mar, a Mediterranean coastal town on the Costa Brava. A beautiful and lively beach town.

The boys participated in the Catalunya Cup 2013. Two teams were enrolled - the U11 & U19 both boys team. The U19 boys  finished 5^th in the tournament but the star of the tournament were the U11 boys.

The U11 team category was 7 a side and had 15 teams representing Germany, Ukraine, Egypt, Italy, France, Canada, Russia, Jordan, Spain & India. The PIFA-Mumbai Lions beat PGS Alessandria (Italy) 5-0, Portazgo SD (Spain) 2-1, Sports Academy SAI (Egypt) 4-0 and lost to the eventual cup winners Sokol Sports School 2-5 in their group stage.

The final stage, the team beat Dresdener SC (Germany) 3-1 to enter the semi -finals where fatigue got the better of this small squad of only 7 players to lose to Canada A.A (Canada). The team then lost  3rd place to Ednist (Ukraine) in a penalty shoot-out (6-7).

It was a fabulous performance by these young boys who had trained with PIFA for four months prior to this tournament  in Mumbai.  Arhan Khan, Shubhan Nadiadwala, Shaan Chhadva and Atulya Agarwal were outstanding for the U11 as were Dashyanng Kachru, Karan Patel, Yasheel Shah & Neel Shah for the U19 boys.

Bollywood star Malaika Arora Khan was present and supported the young Mumbai Lions through the competition.

The children visited the water park on the last day.

All campers were awarded a camp certificate and a football. Talented campers were invited to play for the PIFA teams.

The camp open to children between 9-18 years of all abilities, it is designed to develop children into better players, understand the diet & healthy habits of professional players and to understand the foreign culture.

LIVE YOUR DREAM - Indian children have an opportunity to showcase their talent in Spain

Premier India Football Academy (PIFA) is organizing their 31^st  Champions Tour from 18-29 May 2013 to Barcelona. This being their 10^th year.

The campers will attend  the reputed Hristo Stoichkov Academy . Hristo Stoichkov is a  football legend from  Bulgaria. He was a member of the Bulgarian national team that finished fourth at the 1994 World Cup, in which he was the top scorer with 6 goals that earned him the World Cup Golden Boot .  At FC Barcelona, he was part of Johan Cruyff's  'Dream Team',  it was one of the  most successful eras of the club, winning the La Liga four years in a row and the European Cup .

The training will be conducted by UEFA licensed coach Antonio Sánchez, one of the most qualified technical professional from the Spanish football youth academy, he is also scouts for Barcelona FC.  The players will be prepared for the International tournament as well as to enhance the ability.

The players will stay and train at a luxurious resort & training facilities. These facilities are also used by  Barcelona teams  for  their outstation camp.

The organizers have also invited the Dutch legend Johan Cruyff to have dinner with the campers, the children will be able to interact with the Barca legend. Cruyff is synonymous with the playing style of "Total Football" and master of the "Cruyff Turn". He won the Ballon d'Or thrice, a record recently broken by Messi.

The children will get a tour of Nou Camp Stadium and Museum, as well as a city tour.
In the second phase of the tour, the children will play an International  tournament in the beach town of Lloret, where over 200 teams are expected from all over the World. Famous young players like Neymar have participated in, the tournament is truly an opportunity for talented players to show case their skills and to be invited for club trials.

The camp is open to children between 10-20 years of all abilities. The camp is designed to develop children into better players, understand the diet & healthy habits of professional players, to understand the Spanish culture and to make new friends.

All campers will be awarded a camp certificate and a football.  One lucky participant will win a FC Barcelona jersey signed by Lionel Messi.

For tour details contact 9820968365

Indian children train & play in Barcelona

Premier India Football Academy (PIFA) organized their 30^th Champions Tour from 15-25 May 2013 to Barcelona. This being their 10^th year.

The camp was open to children between 10-18 years of all abilities. The camp is designed to develop children into better players, understand the diet & healthy habits of professional players, to understand the Spanish culture and to make new friends.

The participants were trained by Catalunya’s UEFA licensed coach Antonio Sánchez, one of the most qualified technical professional from the Spanish Catalunya football youth academy and assisted by  coach’s Angel Di Maria and Angel Micah at the reputed Hristo Stoichkov Academy in Barcelona.

The players were trained tactically on the Barcelona and Spanish formation and explained the principles employed by Pep Guardiola during his time with FC Barcelona.

The children got a tour of Nou Camp and the museum,  all were in awe of the silver ware  especially the FIFA Golden Boot 1994 belonging to Barca legend Hristo Stoichkov and Messi’s  four FIFA Ballon d'Or.

The following night they watched FC Barcelona beat  Real Valladolid 2-1 at Nou Camp. The match was followed by celebrations as FC Barcelona lifted the La Liga trophy for the 22nd time. The club captain Carles Puyol  let the team manager Tito Vilanova and team mate Eric Abidal, who have both been battling cancer this season, to lift the trophy, this was followed by fireworks.

This year the children also got to participate in the Pentecostes tournament held in the beach town of Lloret, in two age groups that was the  U15 & U17.  There were over 125 academy teams from all over Europe most of them being Germans that participated. The players were awarded a medal each.

All campers were awarded a camp certificate and a football. Talented campers have been invited to play for the PIFA teams.

The next  PIFA Champions Tour is to Barcelona on 18 June 2013. Call 98209 68365 for details.

Saturdays will never be the same

Premier Football League (PFL) and Junior Football League (JFL) concluded on Saturday 23 February at the JBCN International School astro turf football pitch in Parel, Mumbai, The league was played over 12 Saturdays since 17 November 2012.

Two hundred fourteen boys between the ages 5 to 17 years participated in 6 age categories and forty two girls played in the 2 age groups. There were 1-2 talented underprivileged boys from the PIFA Foundation youth development program in most of the teams. Most of the teams were formed  randomly by mixing the players.

The participants were offered free training during this period by the league training partners - Premier India Football Academy (PIFA) at any of their 14 centres in Mumbai.

This League is the 2nd edition, the previous edition being played in 2011-2012 at the Western Railway ground in Parel.

Director Anjali Shah had this to say about the league "The league was designed for young children to show case and improve  their skills, to stay fit and healthy, to socialize and play with new team mates and finally, for parents to spend some quality time with their young ones"

The league had parents as coaches and managers. The league was played  4v4 for age 5-6 years and increased depending on their age category upto 7v7 for 12years and above. This was primarily to let the players get more touches of the ball and enable them to develop their skills.

The Winners and top scorers of the league were as follows :

JFL 1 (5-6 yrs) : Falcons (Raj Solanki)
JFL 2 (7-8 yrs) : Alligators (Jordan Naronha)
JFL 3 (9-10 yrs) : Titans (Sidh Surana)
JFL 4 (11-12 yrs) : Bombay Bullets (Abhishek)

PFL 1 (13-15 yrs) : Buca (Manas Maniar)
PFL 2 (16-17 yrs) : Black Panthers (Vaugn Menezes)
PFL Jr Girls (8-12 yrs) : Ballerina (Saaya Mehta)
PFL Sr Girls (13-17 yrs) : Spice Girls (Rhea Jaffer)

The top scorers won prizes from Nike.

The league technical Director Nirvan (UEFA/AFC B lic. coach) was excited by what he saw,  "Simply amazed to see the improvement in the ability of these young boys and girls over the 12 match days. They are now passing and creating opportunities. They are all enjoying their game, it is not about winning, it is about challenging themselves to get better. India's got talent, our next step as India coaches and parents is to nurture the talented cubs into world class players "

At the conclusion of this edition of the league Mrs Sunita Narohna (parent) exclaimed "Saturdays will not be the same any more !".

The next edition of the League will be in October 2013, registrations will open shortly on www.pfleague.in

What should parents be aware of when sending their child for football training

Every parent wants their child to go to the best school in the city. 

So how does a parent know which is the best school for their child's education? 

They would check on the -

• the institution’s reputation
• the teachers
• the students / results / track record
• the values

Similarly parents must also research about the football academies they send their child to.

Sports is a science and so is football. The current level of football is miles ahead and different from the football played 5 to 10 years ago.

Today’s top club player is more intelligent, leaner, fitter and technically sound. These players spend over 10,000 hours of training under a professional coach. They are confident and can adapt to any position.

Your child’s time is precious and you do not want them to go through their golden age of learning without being taught the correctly. So before your sign up at an academy check their credentials. 

Ratings :

Avoid         *

Okay         **

Excellent **

Who is running the academy?

• Event managers or Marketing Agency *
• Single coach **
• Football Club **
• Football Academy ***

The Event managers and Marketing Agencies are doing it solely for the money and to satisfy their client. They do not care about the development of your child.

The single coach will stifle the growth of the child as he will limit his exposure.

The Football club are looking for players for their teams, so if your child does not meet their standard they may release him.

Academies will have a structured program and monitor the progress in a non stressful environment. Good academies will associate with foreign academies for technical knowledge. 

Find out who is the technical director, what are his qualifications (ideally UEFA/AFC) and track record with youth development.

Who are the coaches ? 

• Ex player *
• Foreigners / Indian with no qualifications *
• Licensed ***

Avoid classes that have untrained or unqualified coaches be it Indian or Foreigners they will do more damage to your child, especially foreigners as they are ignorant to the needs of  Indian children. Unqualified coaches have no idea to train. Their classes will be 70%  playing matches and the balance irrelevant drills, the child will enjoy but will learn very little.

(Just because you studied in school does not qualify you to be a teacher, you must do a teachers course to be able to teach. Similarly being a player does not qualify you to  coach)

Licensed coaches will focus on the elements of the game and conduct their session age specific and to a plan. Improvement will be guaranteed.

The football coaching licenses you should look for is AIFF, AFC or UEFA.

What is the track record of the academy ?

Questions you can ask

·        Has the academy produced players for the national & state teams.

·         Have the academy team won tournaments

·         Have the academy coaches won tournaments

·         Is the academy recognized by the state & national body

·         Does  the academy  have a future map if he is a serious player?

If the answers to this is yes then  the academy is for your child.

What are the values of the academy ?

·         Does the academy have a vision, can your child be part of this vision.

·         What is the ratio of coach to child. Ideally a Level 1 coach can handle not more than 12 kids.

·         Does the academy give high value to the physical and mental well being of your child?

·         Are the promoters of the academy qualified or just financial investors?

·         Has the academy invested in coach development or do they take coaches from other academies unethically?

So parents, if you are looking for the right academy for your child these are some of the questions you must be asking.

Children will follow their coach make the right choice for him.  Your child may be the next Messi, so provide him the right opportunity.