Daily Times

LAHORE: Real Madrid Foundation (RMF), an institutional arm of the world renowned and prestigious Spanish football club Real Madrid, recently held its first ever football camp, Real Madrid Foundation Campus Experience, in Lahore.

In a press conference held at a local hotel, RMFCE Director Joaquin Sagues announced that registrations for the camp are now open across Lahore.

The five-day football camp of the foundation would take place at the Model Town Football Academy from December 27 till December 31, 2016, for which the foundation trainers and coaches would travel to Pakistan from Spain.

Speaking about why the foundation has chosen to hold a camp in Pakistan, Sagues said, “We are very proud to be able to bring Real Madrid values closer to all Pakistani children. We are convinced that this first edition of campus experience in Lahore will be a roaring success.”

He said over the past five years, the Real Madrid Foundation has held football camps across over four continents through which it has engaged more than 30,000 children. “The foundation aims to provide children between the ages of 7 to 17 an opportunity to learn the game of football and the values inherent in sport. These values serve as an educational tool, capable of contributing to the comprehensive development of the youth who practice it. In addition, the foundation’s aim is to promote the coexistence and the individual and social development, as well as the values associated with Real Madrid,” he added.

QSports, a Qatar-based sports management firm, which successfully organised the camp in Qatar in 2014 and 2015, is the official host and rights holder of RMFCE in Pakistan, while the official event management companies for the camp include Checkmate Consultancy and Green Peak International.

Speaking about the expectations QSports has from the upcoming camp to be held in Lahore, Qsports CEO Adil Ahmed said, “We hope that the campus will bring a much needed boost to promote football in Pakistan. It’s a wonderful opportunity for young footballers to learn the values of Real Madrid, one of the greatest football clubs in the world. This is just a first step and our aim is to host the campus in other cities across Pakistan as well and bring many more programmes to Pakistan offered by the Real Madrid Foundation.”

Sharing their experience of the organising phase of the camp and the response from Lahoris so far, Green Peak International Chairman Salman Butt said, “GPIs vision is to promote sports through development of grassroots and premier events. After the successful completion of the PSL, we are extremely excited in working with Qsports and Checkmate to launch the FRM Campus Experience, and would work together to further develop this over the next three years. We are confident that such quality initiatives will augment the development of football in Pakistan at the grassroots level as well as domestic and national levels.

It is pertinent to mention that in 2012, 2,300 children aged between 7 and 17 attended the camps, representing 73 different nationalities across five continents. The Qatar Camp in December 2014 attracted over 300 kids who participated in a seven-day camp at the Al Sadd Sports Club.