In 2005 United Bank supported the Youth Football Academy with complete football equipment for 180 children and set up and fully funded the special project “an Italian dream”

Background information on the Football Academy

The St. Vincent & the Grenadines Youth Football Academy is officially recognized by the local football federation and its goal is to incentivate children aged 7-16 to practice football and to assist them in having a smooth and safe integration in society. As of today, the academy counts approximately 180 children and runs two junior sections, one for children aged 6-12 and another for those aged 13-16.

Most of the children come from depressed, lower income areas and although the academy’s main role is to support children’s education and growth, it has been very successful at spotting talents: three of the former academy’s children currently play at a professional level in foreign premier leagues (in the US, in Ireland and in Malaysia) and are an essential part of the SVG National Team.

In addition to the sponsorship of the complete football equipment for the academy, United Bank initiated and fully financed the project “an Italian dream”. This project allowed two Vincetian children to attend in Italy a two week training camp atf the youth section of Cagliari FC, an Italian premier league team.

The two selected children are Azinho Salomon and Harvey Derrick both 11 years old and part of the SVG-YFA Football team. During their stay, they had the opportunity to play with the team at two international tournaments in Italy, with Azinho scoring a total of 4 goals.

Background information on Cagliari FC

Cagliari FC www.cagliaricalcio.net was founded in 1929 and plays in the Italian premier league (Serie A). It has a number of international football stars in its professional team: three of its current players are part of the Italian national team and their most famous star was former Chelsea player Gianfranco Zola.

In addition, Cagliari FC has especially been successful with its junior teams and its technical director, Mr. G. Matteoli, has been awarded in 2004 the price for operating the best italian youth development program. It is especially in this context that the two Vincetian juniors had to possibilty to interact with Cagliari’s Juniors and the new training techniques.