Canary Wharf Pick Players to Travel to England

The local footballers under Canary Wharf's youth development programme will be given a great opportunity to travel to England next year for a month-long advanced training.

Canary Wharf, a British-based group which sponsors the four-year football development programme in Bangladesh, promised to send at least 15 players out of the 34-member camp to London's David Beckham Academy in May next year.

"We will take the players to England for four weeks in May, 2008. They will also receive advanced training at Arsenal and West Ham's academies. We have been trying to take all 34 players but so far, we have ensured at least 15 players will go," said Zakir Khan, community affairs manager of Canary Wharf yesterday. He was talking to reporters at the BKSP, where British aviation minister Jim Fitzpatrick, MP, went to visit the 18-month-old youth camp.

Fitzpatrick, on a personal visit to Bangladesh, enjoyed a superb day out and also scored the lone goal - a spectacular headed effort by the 55-year-old - for the Canary Wharf trainees in an exhibition match against veteran footballers featuring the likes of Aslam, Sabbir and Kaiser Hamid. The ex-booters won the match 3-1 with Imtiaz Sultan Johnny, Imtiaz Ahmed Nakib and Jamal scoring one goal apiece.

"Canary Wharf has been working for the development of Tower Hamlets in east London. I hope it will be able to make a great contribution in development of football here. We will help it as far as we can," said the Labour Party MP. Canary Wharf's strategic advisor Howard Dawver said that the organisation has been considering prospects of building a football academy in Bangladesh. "Nothing has been finalised about the academy yet. But we will talk with Emirates and Clifton Group about it," he said.

It was learned that the Canary Wharf officials will visit the United Arab Emirates on their way back to England to talk with their Emirates counterparts. Clifton group is a British-based group owned by Bangladeshi expatriates.

Chief coach of the camp Golam Sarwar Tipu, meanwhile, was optimistic about the future of his students. "They have made significant improvements. I believe that they will be competitive enough to win places in our age-group teams," said Tipu who feels the need of an academy for training purpose as all residential camps depend on the availability of space at the BKSP, country's lone sports institute at Savar.

Local coordinator Fazlur Rahman Babul, Bangladesh Football Federation vice-president Monir Ahmed were present in the daylong trip to Savar among others.

British Minister in Dhaka

British Aviation Minister Jim Fitzpatrick, MP, arrived in Dhaka yesterday on a six-day personal visit to promote a youth football development programme.

Fitzpatrick has arrived at the invitation of Canary Wharf UK, a British-based group, which sponsors a four-year youth football development programme.

He will visit BKSP today to look at the coaching camp - where 34 players are undergoing training of the third session of the second year. He is also expected to hold discussions with the country's football bosses and BKSP officials on building a proposed football academy.

The British minister will then depart for a three-day trip to Sylhet, home to the largest British-Bangladeshi expatriate community in Bangladesh.

Improvement Satisfactory for Ferguson

British football coach Anthony Ferguson was hopeful about the future of the youth football camp in Bangladesh, which is run by local experts under the auspices of Canary Wharf with support from Emirates.

Ferguson, who spent over a week with the 32 young prospects at BKSP, told yesterday before his departure to the UK that he was impressed by the improvement of the players at the start of the second year's camp.

The boys, trained by a panel of local coaches under head coach Ghulam Sarwar Tipu, had been handpicked from 150 players of the first-phase camp, who were selected from 4,500 youngsters who joined trials across the country.

"We picked up where had left off. The boys have made excellent progress, which has exceeded our expectations. Some of them have matured in football terms. Their ball skills have improved and they can now communicate among themselves effectively and the commitment is 100 per cent," told Ferguson, who was accompanied by assistant coach Barry Todd.

"We just want the local coaches to spend more time with them. This will speed up their development process even further," said Ferguson adding that he was satisfied with the physical improvement of the players too.

"We believe these boys have splendid future and will grow into good footballers. We feel very confident of inviting some of them to the United Kingdom to train at the Canary Wharf Academy. We'll take them to watch training sessions at Arsenal and matches between famous clubs, hopefully in August."

Canary Wharf Football Academy Bangladesh 2006

This is a short film about Canary Wharf's Bangladesh Football Project. This project was started to try to find the most talented young players in Bangladesh and give them some proper training.

Canary Wharf Football Academy Returns

The second session of the second year's football academy organised by Canary Wharf UK, begins May 24 at BKSP.

All the 32 trainees have been asked to report to chief coach Ghulam Sarwar Tipu and chief coordinator Fazlur Rahman Babul at the sport institute in Savar on the same day by 5pm.

British coach Anthony Ferguson and media officials of Canary Wharf will also arrive in Dhaka on May 24 to supervise the camp.

Last year, 35 juvenile footballers (12-14 years) were handpicked from 4,000 players who joined trials across the country. Three players have been dismissed due to indiscipline and illness.

The trainee footballers will also receive academic support during their stay at BKSP.