280 youngsters take part in football training clinics

The YKK Asia Group Kids Football Clinic (AKFC), conducted in collaboration with Real Madrid Foundation, took place at the Racecourse ground in Colombo from Friday to Sunday. This was part of YKK's CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) projects done annually and one of the two football training clinics held annually in countries where YKK is in operation.

The clinic, aimed at youngsters between the ages of eight to 15 who are less privileged than the ordinary, kick-started on Friday with a training camp for coaches, a new addition to the programme that was inaugurated in 2007 in Singapore.

The football clinic began on Saturday at the Racecourse ground with two sessions being held in the morning and later in the evening. Approximately 280 youngsters took part in the clinic held in four sessions with 70 drafted for each session, which lasted three hours. The clinics were conducted by Pablo Gomez Revenga, Javier Garcia Torres and Jaime Torcal Cano, all qualified football coaches from Real Madrid Foundation.

The main beneficiary of this clinic were 140 potential youngsters from the SOS Children's Village and out of the remaining 140 slots, 70 were given for youngsters from Badulla. All participants received a full set of YKK/Real Madrid Foundation kits, which included a jersey, pairs of shorts, socks and boots in addition to a participation certificate and the experience of lifetime.

YKK continues the AKFC programme as a two-legged clinic annually in two countries where its branches are based -- Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. The programme was conducted in Sri Lanka in 2011, a year before Real Madrid joined hands with YKK. Since their inclusion, the AKFC has become a hit in the region.