The FAI and McDonalds have launched the second year of their Future Football programme.
Over 140 clubs are registered to take part in the programme, an expansion from last year’s pilot, and this will deliver a total of 60,000 additional coaching hours to 7,000 young players.
The programme combines coach education with series of open community days. These bring together clubs within a community for a day of skills, competition in short sided games and entertainment.
In the Autumn there is a national competition for teams aged U8 up to U10 for mixed teams of boys and girls who get to play at the Aviva Stadium, meet the players and attend a Republic of Ireland international.
There is also a club support programme aimed at assisting managers and administrators to learn more and raise standards in clubs of all sizes across the country.
There was extensive criticism of the McDonalds Future Football Programme when it launched last year but the impact in terms of extra coaching and extra sporting engagement has been a positive.
