One of the sporting world’s leading youth academies has just teamed up with a global technology company to provide more resources for the sake of developing youth sports in Qatar. As a nation that has achieved very little in global competition, Qatar is searching for the spark that will light the fire of the potential they see in their youth.
In Doha on 05 June 2016, a press release from Aspire Academy announced a partnership between Aspire and German multi-national technology company, SAP . The mutual agreement was based around a vision to revolutionize and develop youth sporting in Qatar and drive their potential to the next level.
Aspire Academy has become one of the most successful youth athletic academies since it opened its doors in 2004. The Academy is creating and implementing game-changing strategies and approaches to developing elite athletes not only in Qatar, but throughout the Middle East. The Academy’s training facilities are used by world-renown coaches and athletes which it hopes has set it on a pace to become the world’s leading youth sports academy before 2020. And the rise of Aspire Academy could mean a direct correlation to the improvement of Qatari athletics from the youth ranks to its national teams.
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The Qatari men’s national football team currently sits in 84th place and averages an 82nd ranking in the FIFA World Rankings . The Qatari women’s team comes in at an even lower 137th place while maintaining an average 127th place since FIFA began ranking national teams in 1993. But, numbers like these do not correctly reflect the potential that the Qatari youth possess.
In 2014, Qatar’s U-19 national football team was crowned the AFC Champion. Its U-20 national team qualified for the World Cup and its U-23 team reached the semis of the Asian Cup for the first time in just over 30 years. These were all incredibly promising performances but the most important detail of these teams is that each one was 100% represented by current Aspire athletes and graduates.
Now the partnership between Aspire and SAP is promising to blow the lid off the recent Qatari performances. The technology, from SAP, used at the Academy will allow coaches, trainers, athletes and the front office to access real-time data on athlete-specific performances management strategies. The software can be accessed from any mobile device. According to the press release, one specific platform provides users access to a database of match results, developmental summaries, competition strategies and much, much more.
When asked to comment on the partnership after the official announcement was made, Stefan Wagner, Senior VP and Global General Manager of Sports and Entertainment at SAP had this to say: “Aspire Academy is at the forefront of transforming youth development with analytics, as coaches can optimize line-ups on tablets, players can review match highlights on smartphones, and trainers can track player fitness and fatigue. Co-innovating with Aspire Academy will leverage global best practices in sports analytics and science, starting from the development level.”
In the 12 years since Aspire Academy first began instilling the passion and belief in Qatari athletes the results have been promising. It seems as though the foundation for athletic success has been laid and only time will tell if Qatar becomes an elite sporting nation. In the meantime, the partnership between SAP and the Academy will only expedite the process to get there.