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Brazilian state-of-the-art training centre wows local football execs
SEAN A WILLIAMS, Assistant Sports Editor
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Atletico Paranaense owner Mario Celso Petraglia (left) makes a point to (from 2nd left) JFF general secretary Horace Reid, JFF Technical Committee chairman Howard McIntosh and technical director Rene Simoes at the Alfredo Gotardi Training Centre in Curitiba, Brazil, recently. (Photos: Sean Williams)
Two of Jamaica's top football executives - Horace Reid and Howard McIntosh - agreed that their recent visit to the Alfredo Gotardi Training Centre in Curitiba, Brazil, was indeed an eye-opener.
The multi-faceted, state-of-the-art facility, geared to all aspects of football development, is the best in Brazil and certainly one of the best in the world, it is widely agreed.
For Reid, the general secretary of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), the impressive facility run by Brazilian Serie A club Atletico Paranaense, is the best he has laid eyes on, having travelled the world to view others.
"The centre that I toured at Atletico Paranaense is the best I have seen and I have seen several around the world. Anything and everything that you need to have at a training centre exist at this facility at first-class level. One would have to see to get a true impression of what I am speaking to," said the respected football administrator who was in Brazil recently as part of the Reggae Boyz's seven-match tour of the South American nation.
The Alfredo Gotardi Training Centre, as well as the smaller facility run by Coritiba FC, is in keeping with the overall vision of the JFF in establishing their own technical centre, said Reid.
Two of eight training fields at the state-of-the-art training and development facility.
"This is pretty much along the lines of what we would want to have in Jamaica. We may never be able to get at this level in terms of the quality of the facility, but in terms of the basic amenities and basic infrastructure that one needs to have at our technical centre. this pretty much sums it up," he noted.
The Atletico facility's primary goal is to manufacture football talent for sale to local and international markets and the venture has been a huge success, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Over 250 young players are presently boarded at the sprawling complex at the Under-13, Under-16, Under-17, Under-19 and senior levels. There are eight training pitches, with a couple being replicas of Atletico's main rivals, Parana Club and Coritiba. Whenever Atletico are to face any of their arch-rivals they would train on these pitches.
Also, the multimillion dollar facility is equipped with swimming pools, cold and dry storage for food, conference room (seats 200), coaches' and players' living quarters, games rooms, tennis court, basketball court, computer-equipped classroom, auditorium, health and nutrition centre, gymnasium, physiology and physiotherapy departments.
The well-equipped gymnasium.
Also, the training centre has a small 6,000-capacity stadium where the Under-19s play their competitive matches. The senior Atletico team plays at the 28,000-seat Kyocera Stadium in the heart of Coritiba city.
Cost to feed the 250 players housed at the complex is US$40,000 per month, claims curator Paulo Rink, a Brazilian born former German international. The operational cost, not including salaries, is said to be US$135,000 per month.
"What I have seen here further reinforces in my mind what it is that we ought to aspire to. If we were able to have a facility of anything close to what we saw here in Brazil, one can only imagine the levels our football could go," said Reid, who toured the facility with the 24-man Boyz squad.
He said it should not only be the aspiration of the JFF to pursue a similar technical facility, but clubs should also seriously think along those lines.
"And this is not only an aspiration for the JFF, it should be an aspiration for top clubs, because pretty much what we have are facilities that we train at and play our games, and that is not necessarily the best way to develop. It's not sufficient," he argued.
Only recently, the JFF board of directors voted unanimously to discontinue work on the National Football Academy in remote Malvern, St Elizabeth, a FIFA Goal Project. The JFF has shifted focus and will now pursue a more comprehensive plan that will fit into the concept of a technical centre.
Chairman of the JFF Technical Development Committee, McIntosh, said the Brazilian visit has been a goldmine of information.
"One of the things that I am doing here from a technical standpoint, is trying to get as much information as possible. We visited training sites at Atletico and Coritiba and of course they are on different levels. One of the big discussions taking place in Jamaica is the question of an academy, we are trying to reshape the discussion to the talk of a technical centre, because they are different things.
"And now with all this information in hand and a presentation to the technical committee first and then the board of directors, it will help to expose and educate everybody to the type of facilities that are really available," he told Sporting World.
McIntosh said the federation aims to take full advantage of the knowledge gleaned in Brazil as a "detailed" technical development plan is being chiseled.
"The primary objective of the technical and development committee is to improve the infrastructure and the technical aspects of the beautiful game, and this tour would have given us sufficient information to go about achieving that objective and I am sure that when the plan is revealed sometime in April to the country, it would be a much more in-depth and detailed plan ensuring that we achieve the objective of 2010 and beyond," he noted.
McIntosh, a long-time ally of JFF president Captain Horace Burrell, said having seen up close what exists in Brazil has boosted confidence that similar, albeit smaller complexes, can be developed in Jamaica.
"Having been here, met the people who run these facilities, the people who work in them, it gives you the confidence that we too can do it, but you know we will always be restrained by resources. We don't even have the technical resources to support the level of football that we are playing now. We are going to have to develop these types of facilities, and when I talk about facilities, I am talking about training centres and fields," he concluded.
SEAN A WILLIAMS, Assistant Sports Editor
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Atletico Paranaense owner Mario Celso Petraglia (left) makes a point to (from 2nd left) JFF general secretary Horace Reid, JFF Technical Committee chairman Howard McIntosh and technical director Rene Simoes at the Alfredo Gotardi Training Centre in Curitiba, Brazil, recently. (Photos: Sean Williams)Two of Jamaica's top football executives - Horace Reid and Howard McIntosh - agreed that their recent visit to the Alfredo Gotardi Training Centre in Curitiba, Brazil, was indeed an eye-opener.
The multi-faceted, state-of-the-art facility, geared to all aspects of football development, is the best in Brazil and certainly one of the best in the world, it is widely agreed.
For Reid, the general secretary of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), the impressive facility run by Brazilian Serie A club Atletico Paranaense, is the best he has laid eyes on, having travelled the world to view others.
"The centre that I toured at Atletico Paranaense is the best I have seen and I have seen several around the world. Anything and everything that you need to have at a training centre exist at this facility at first-class level. One would have to see to get a true impression of what I am speaking to," said the respected football administrator who was in Brazil recently as part of the Reggae Boyz's seven-match tour of the South American nation.
The Alfredo Gotardi Training Centre, as well as the smaller facility run by Coritiba FC, is in keeping with the overall vision of the JFF in establishing their own technical centre, said Reid.
Two of eight training fields at the state-of-the-art training and development facility."This is pretty much along the lines of what we would want to have in Jamaica. We may never be able to get at this level in terms of the quality of the facility, but in terms of the basic amenities and basic infrastructure that one needs to have at our technical centre. this pretty much sums it up," he noted.
The Atletico facility's primary goal is to manufacture football talent for sale to local and international markets and the venture has been a huge success, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Over 250 young players are presently boarded at the sprawling complex at the Under-13, Under-16, Under-17, Under-19 and senior levels. There are eight training pitches, with a couple being replicas of Atletico's main rivals, Parana Club and Coritiba. Whenever Atletico are to face any of their arch-rivals they would train on these pitches.
Also, the multimillion dollar facility is equipped with swimming pools, cold and dry storage for food, conference room (seats 200), coaches' and players' living quarters, games rooms, tennis court, basketball court, computer-equipped classroom, auditorium, health and nutrition centre, gymnasium, physiology and physiotherapy departments.
The well-equipped gymnasium.Also, the training centre has a small 6,000-capacity stadium where the Under-19s play their competitive matches. The senior Atletico team plays at the 28,000-seat Kyocera Stadium in the heart of Coritiba city.
Cost to feed the 250 players housed at the complex is US$40,000 per month, claims curator Paulo Rink, a Brazilian born former German international. The operational cost, not including salaries, is said to be US$135,000 per month.
"What I have seen here further reinforces in my mind what it is that we ought to aspire to. If we were able to have a facility of anything close to what we saw here in Brazil, one can only imagine the levels our football could go," said Reid, who toured the facility with the 24-man Boyz squad.
He said it should not only be the aspiration of the JFF to pursue a similar technical facility, but clubs should also seriously think along those lines.
"And this is not only an aspiration for the JFF, it should be an aspiration for top clubs, because pretty much what we have are facilities that we train at and play our games, and that is not necessarily the best way to develop. It's not sufficient," he argued.
Only recently, the JFF board of directors voted unanimously to discontinue work on the National Football Academy in remote Malvern, St Elizabeth, a FIFA Goal Project. The JFF has shifted focus and will now pursue a more comprehensive plan that will fit into the concept of a technical centre.
Chairman of the JFF Technical Development Committee, McIntosh, said the Brazilian visit has been a goldmine of information.
"One of the things that I am doing here from a technical standpoint, is trying to get as much information as possible. We visited training sites at Atletico and Coritiba and of course they are on different levels. One of the big discussions taking place in Jamaica is the question of an academy, we are trying to reshape the discussion to the talk of a technical centre, because they are different things.
"And now with all this information in hand and a presentation to the technical committee first and then the board of directors, it will help to expose and educate everybody to the type of facilities that are really available," he told Sporting World.
McIntosh said the federation aims to take full advantage of the knowledge gleaned in Brazil as a "detailed" technical development plan is being chiseled.
"The primary objective of the technical and development committee is to improve the infrastructure and the technical aspects of the beautiful game, and this tour would have given us sufficient information to go about achieving that objective and I am sure that when the plan is revealed sometime in April to the country, it would be a much more in-depth and detailed plan ensuring that we achieve the objective of 2010 and beyond," he noted.
McIntosh, a long-time ally of JFF president Captain Horace Burrell, said having seen up close what exists in Brazil has boosted confidence that similar, albeit smaller complexes, can be developed in Jamaica.
"Having been here, met the people who run these facilities, the people who work in them, it gives you the confidence that we too can do it, but you know we will always be restrained by resources. We don't even have the technical resources to support the level of football that we are playing now. We are going to have to develop these types of facilities, and when I talk about facilities, I am talking about training centres and fields," he concluded.
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