European Soccer School

The Charlton Athletic European Soccer School was officially launched by Addicks manager Alan Curbishley on May 22nd, 2004.

It was established in Spain the previous September, with its first centres being established in Pilar de Horadada and Nerja.

And no more than a year later Addicks coaches had seen thousands of youngsters, with further centres opening along the Costa Blanca.

It was at the Ikomer Stadium - home of Spanish Third Division side UD Horadada - that the school was launched, with the aim of providing football courses predominantly for the youngsters of the large British expatriate community now living in Spain.

It was a grand occasion, with Curbishley the star guest and a number of other club officials travelling out to southern Spain for the event.

The courses are for boys and girls between the ages of six and 16, and the school is being run along the same lines as the award-winning Charlton Football in the Community scheme, which has also exported its pioneering practices out to South Africa, the United States, Finland and New Zealand.

The European Soccer School was established by David Greene in partnership with former Addicks goalkeeper Jeff Wood, with Greene taking sole control of the initiative from October 2005.

He said: "It is a fantastic opportunity for Charlton. There are many ways for a club to broaden its appeal and this is one of them.

"Spanish clubs aren't historically interested in the kind of community work that is generally carried out in England, and exemplified by Charlton, and there is definitely a market for the kids.

"We can get potentially thousands of youngsters wearing Charlton gear, being coached by Charlton coaches and following the club from an early age."

Population figures show that the number of Brits living in southern Spain is expected to rise to two million in the space of the next five years, so there is a massive target audience for the club's community work.

Funding is available from UEFA and the European Commission for the work, which will include health and education initiatives and courses such as the Charlton Challenge, mini-soccer tournaments and curriculum-time coaching in schools such as El Limonar.

The school has also forged official links with a number of local clubs - initially with UD Horadada and then joined by UD San Pedro and Torrox Faro in October 2004, plus Real Murcia's youth system - enabling the coaches to cast their eyes over new talent in a completely different part of the globe.

The links with clubs are particularly important as they provide exit routes for the players who have been coached by the school, either on courses or in local schools, and the clubs benefit from having access to more players and initiatives to improve home gates.

Charlton chief executive Peter Varney explained: "The school makes sense on several levels, not least financially and with regard to our current agreement with our kit suppliers Joma, which is based in Spain.

"We have a very progressive community scheme structure in this country, which many other countries don't seem to have.

"When we attended a UEFA conference in 2004, we were pleasantly surprised to be referred to as one of the leading clubs in Europe in this area and, with partners such as British Airways in South Africa, we have shown it is possible to impart some of our knowledge and experience, especially with regard to health and education initiatives, around the world.

"UEFA and the European Commission have made it clear they want to encourage these kind of projects and due to our expertise and the establishment of a community trust, we will be able to tap into new streams of funding that we were unable to attract before."

Varney added: "Another factor that cannot be ignored is how these initiatives promote the club.

"One way of getting the club's name known around the world would be to spend £20m we haven't got on one player. Or we could do things step by step, gradually introducing Charlton to new areas and new youngsters, and that's our approach.

"I know there are a lot of clubs watching us to see how we get on."

More than 1,000 youngsters regularly being coached within five months. And in October 2005 Greene signed a four-year deal to continue the work of the European Soccer School, alongside a new partnership with the ESDE Idiomas language school in Malaga that will see football courses provided by Addicks coaches alongside English lessons.

Curbishley again travelled out to Spain to launch the project, which will see partnership combine to run a programme called 'Learning to Play, Playing to Learn'.