Soccer kids’ Arsenal day out

Written by Delme Parfitt
Tuesday, 23 February 2010

FOOTBALL whizzkids from Rumney and the surrounding area were given a half-time treat – a training fun day with ex-Cardiff City striker Christian Roberts as well as a trip to Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.

During the February holiday Rumney Communities First, Voluntary Action Cardiff, Roberts’ coaching company Total Techniques and South Wales Police held a special soccer camp at LLanrumney High School for children aged between 4-11 years old.

The camp was part-funded by the East Cardiff Neighbourhood Management Fund which aims to provide opportunities for children and to tackle anti-social behaviour, child poverty and health and well-being issues

At the training day the kids learned new skills and techniques from Christian and his team of coaches, with each child awarded a trophy, a certificate of attendance and opportunities to win special prizes for skill of the day, penalty shootout winner and player of the day.

The following day the kids were taken on a trip to Arsenal FC to have a tour of the museum and the new Emirates stadium.

The stadium tour took the children behind the scenes, inside each dressing room were told every detail of every single trophy that the club has ever won – league championships, FA Cups and, of course, the European Cup Winners Cup.

Former Bluebirds striker Christian said: “The camp was a major success and proved to be a fantastic experience for Cardiff children.

“With the popularity of the camps growing we plan to offer more and more children a chance to play football and experience other Premiership grounds.

“One major surprise for us all was the amount of children who had not even left their community let alone Cardiff to experience different opportunities.

“With that in mind we aim to arrange more trips throughout the year to Chelsea, Liverpool and Wembley.”

Peter Griffiths, development officer added: ”A pleasing factor was that you had children from all parts of East Cardiff mixing and enjoying each others company removing the barriers of the gang culture which older children suffer.

“l think if we can work in partnership and target young children hopefully our next generation of young children won’t be involved in youth annoyance and anti-social behaviour .”