Osmani Trust’s Football in the Community (FITC) project has been delivering a range of community football initiatives and events for the past five years; the project is funded through the Football Foundation. Football Foundation is the UK’s largest sports’ charity, the Foundation funds projects that increase participation in football and other sports and projects that address some of society’s key challenges, such as social inclusion, health, education and equalities.
In early August of this year Sporting Equals in partnership with Queens Park Rangers Community Trust started a football talent ID programme for boys aged 8-11 years old. The FITC has a number of youth teams and some very talented players, in total ten young footballers represented the project at the three day trials held at the QPR training ground in Middlesex.
Out of the ten young players, three impressed the QPR coaches and have been invited to the Centre of Excellence to further develop their techniques and athleticism. Amir Hamza, Mohammed Lemon and Usamah Amin have all been involved with the FITC project for a year now and have different stories of how they got involved with the project.
Mohammed Lemon and Usamah Amin first received coaching in the their primary school via the school base coaching programme and have since been playing with the under 12 and under 10 youth teams, while Amir Hamza came into contact with the project through its community engagement and outreach.
All three were extremely happy with their achievements, Mohammed Lemon said, “I am so excited about going training with the QPR Centre of Excellence; I hope I can do well.”
Abdal Ahmed, Football Development Manager at Osmani Trust said, “This is a fantastic achievement for the three boys but also a landmark for the project. It was the vision of the FITC when we started that we could provide local young people with the opportunity to progress their talents with professional clubs. Thanks to the continued support from Football Foundation we are seeing the fruits of many years of hard work.”
Football in the Community (FITC) project has a number of youth and senior teams that play in a variety of leagues across London, if you are interested in playing please contact Abdal Ahmed on 020 7247 8080.