Press Release 7th December 2011

Premier Skills to bring together coaches and referees from across Sudan and South Sudan

The hugely successful international coach and referee development programme run by the Premier League and the British Council launches a new phase in Khartoum this week. The week-long course will provide intensive practical training for 44 male and female grassroots football coaches and 20 referees from Sudan and South Sudan.

Premier Skills Phase 2 is taking place from 7 December 2011 to the 12 December 2011 and will be led by Jeremy Weeks, a UEFA qualified coach previously employed by Fulham Football Club. He will be supported by Rachel Parker and Stephen McCarthy, community coaches from Bolton Wanderers and Queen’s Park Rangers Football Clubs respectively.

Running alongside the coach programme will be an ‘Introduction to Refereeing’ course, which will focus on teaching community organisation representatives the rules of football, and how to officiate the game of football at any level. The course is being led by former international FIFA referee, Keith Hackett, and will be assisted by Alan Wiley, who was a professional Premier League referee up to his retirement in 2010. This component will run from 5 December 2011 to the 7th December 2011.

The courses in Khartoum are being jointly organised by the British Council, Premier League and Sudan Football Association, who will launch the Premier Skills Phase 2 programme on 7 December 2011 at the Khartoum Football Stadium. This will also celebrate the completion of the referee course. The second phase of the Premier Skills programme is also supported by the Sudanese Ministry of Youth and Sport and the Khartoum Youth Council.

Premier Skills has already successfully run in 23 different centres in 16 countries worldwide. In Africa training courses have already taken place in Botswana, Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia and Uganda.

Premier Skills has achieved huge impact under the first stage of the programme, with 1,000 coaches trained, nearly 300,000 young people reached, and over one million football-focused English language materials distributed globally.

Premier Skills first came to Sudan in 2007 when 44 community coaches, 11 of whom were women, were trained in the first phase of the programme. Since then these coaches have cascaded their training, knowledge and skills to communities across Sudan and South Sudan working in areas as far afield as Darfur, the refuges camps around Nyala, and with groups in Khartoum.

Premier Skills Phase 2 in Khartoum re-unites sports coaches who have already demonstrated their ability and commitment in Phase 1 of the programme. This new component will enable them to apply what they have learnt by running football coaching programmes in their own local communities.

Led by the expertise of the three Premier League coaches, the Sudanese and South Sudanese coaches will strengthen their knowledge and understanding of inclusive community development through football. As a result they will become pivotal figures within their organisation and communities, responsible for implementing community programmes. In addition they will cascade their coaching skills to others involved in their programmes, leading to sustainability of the Premier Skills in Sudan and South Sudan. Equally, the community referees will benefit from the expertise of the Premier League referee coaches and allow them to develop new skills in developing and managing community football projects.

Harnessing the huge global interest in the Premier League, the British Council has created a range of football-based materials that include a dedicated Premier Skills website www.britishcouncil.org/premierskills . This website features downloadable resources for teachers and learners, and the first components of a Premier Skills self-access schools pack, providing materials for teachers and learners of English. These will enable people around the world to develop and build upon their English language skills.

The resources also use the motivational power of football to develop classroom materials that allow teachers and learners to explore key social issues such as health and social inclusion.

Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore said:

“At home the Premier League and our Clubs have a long-held commitment and reputation for delivering high quality community and education programmes. Given our popularity and success internationally we felt it only right to take this approach to a wider community.

“Premier Skills has already taken place in 16 countries, developing over 1,000 new coaches all over the world. These coaches have already delivered work that has benefited a further 300,000 young people. This new phase to the project, which launches in Sudan this week, will build on these achievements, further developing the skills of some of the most promising coaches that we have worked with, as well as helping new ones get off the ground too.”

British Council Chief Executive Martin Davidson said:

“Our purpose is to connect people in the UK to people in other countries and football is a great way to do that. We are therefore proud of Premier Skills, our partnership with the Premier League, and I am delighted that the second phase of this unique project, which combines English and football – two truly universal languages –, is being launched in Sudan.

“Phase two will build on the excellent work already done in Sudan and around the world, giving the coaches further skills to use in their communities in developing community action projects, as well as providing an entirely new referee coaching element that will provide young referees with quality community-focused referee training.”

Keith Hackett said:

“I am really looking forward to getting involved in Premier Skills. It has clearly had a huge impact on football coaching all over the world, developing over 1,000 new coaches in 16 different countries. It is exciting to now be heading up this new referee element to the project in Sudan.

“Referees are a key part of football at any level it is played. Through Premier Skills we plan to encourage a new generation of referees to get into the game, making a lasting contribution to Sudanese football.”

-ENDS-