FC Barcelona launches FCBEschola schools in Mumbai

Mumbai, Aug 24 (PTI) Well known Spanish football clubFC Barcelona today announced the launch its FCBEscola FootballSchools here. The FCBEscola Football Schools will start inmid-September at the Don Bosco High School in Matunga and StDominic Savio High School in suburban Andheri. The schools will cater to over 1,000 buddingfootballers. The club had held its first five-day camp here in2013 in which over 200 young footballers had participated. The schools will be under the supervision of FCBEscolaProject Director Albert Moratalla, the son of FCBarcelonalegend Josep Moratalla, who was involved in the initial stagesof the FCBEscola India project. Albert will be selecting, educating and mentoringlocal coaches in inculcating the FCB methodology and values. "It is a year-long programme and not a camp as such.It is for 36 weeks. We give a lot of value to our partners andare very selective about it. Barca and our values coincided sodid Don Bosco’s values. So, it was a good mix of both, theinfrastructure was good, they have good footballers producedby them and the main thing was numbers," Anupama Jain,Director Conscient Football, told reporters here. "So the capacity is about 500 in each centre. We keeparound 10 per cent of scholarships all across depending on theplayers we get and we are focusing on the age category 6-18years," she added. "We have shared the infrastructure (with Don Bosco)and they are helping us with the facilities," said Jain. PTINRB ARS PDS PDSBAS