Commercial Bank’s Manchester United Soccer School a major success

Doha, Qatar: Commercial Bank, Qatar’s first private bank, is the exclusive financial services partner of Manchester United – one of the world’s favourite football clubs – is proud to announce the successful conclusion of the second Manchester United Soccer School coaching camp, here in Doha. 

 

Over 160 boys and girls aged between seven and sixteen years old took part in the Manchester United Soccer School at the Aspire training facility, with top coaches from Manchester United being specially flown in from the United Kingdom to provide the training.

Commercial Bank customers won places for their children to participate in the exclusive week long coaching camp by entering a prize draw using their exclusive Commercial Bank Manchester United Credit Cards.

 

The Manchester United Soccer School training featured on-field coaching by two certified Manchester United coaches who coached the children in technical skills similar to Manchester United first team players. The coaches also focused on the children’s personal development by encouraging them to be confident, develop their social skills, and adopt a positive attitude for improved performance both on and off the field. The children also learnt about the importance of nutrition and the need for a healthy, balanced diet, especially before and after training. Each child also received a certificate on completion of the training.

Head of Manchester United Soccer Schools, Edoardo Abis said: "The training has been designed to help fine-tune the children’s abilities and develop new skills. The children have been taught the same techniques adopted by Manchester United players and these techniques are developed through small-sided games. Everything we do at Manchester United Soccer Schools relate back to the first team players as we believe this is a very effective way of gaining positive results and understanding from the kids."

 

The camp was also attended by Manchester United Legend Mikael Silvestre who helped to coach the children in developing the skills required to become a professional football player. Mikael congratulated the Commercial Bank for helping to bring world class training camps such as this to Qatar and said: “It is great to see so many young people being inspired to be active and given the opportunity to develop skills with some of the industry’s best coaches. I look forward to perhaps seeing some of these young people succeeding in sports in the future.”  

 

Commercial Bank believes that social responsibility is realised through incorporating social aspects in the way business is run and in its interactions with its partners and society at large. In this context, Commercial Bank has continued to support and sponsor various events including educational, cultural, sports, and social activities. This year the Bank announced its support for Education Above All’s  ‘ Educate A Child (EAC)’ progamme, which aims to bring out of school children into quality primary education programmes.  During the soccer camp, participants signed and wrote messages of support to children across the globe enrolled in these EAC programmes. Commercial Bank strongly supports the promotion of sports to provide more opportunities for children from various communities and cultures to play soccer together and create a positive social impact.

 

Khalifa Nasser Al Rayes Commercial Bank EGM, Government Relations, said: “Since launch, we have received an overwhelming response from customers for Commercial Bank’s exclusive Manchester United financial products. Manchester United Debit and Credit Card holders not only gain from Commercial Bank’s generous rewards programme, but fans stand to win exclusive Manchester United experiences such as a place in our Soccer Schools, held yearly in Doha. We have had an exciting second season of running this soccer camp, with the growth in the numbers of Manchester United Credit Cardholders resulting in a huge number of entries to participate in the soccer camp”.  He added further, “Commercial Bank aims to play an important role in supporting sport activities and events which help develop physical abilities and to promote a spirit of competition amongst future generations. We are proud to be associated with the Education Above All ‘s Educate A Child programme.” Founded in 2012, by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser in Qatar, EAC aims to signifciantly reduce the number of out of school children worldwide. There are 58million children worldwide without access to education.

 

Fahad Hamad Al Sulaiti, Deputy CEO of Education Above All said “Our programme, Educate A Child, primarily focuses on enrolling out of school children into quality primary education programmes, particularly in regions suffering from poverty or post conflict. Through this partnership with Commercial Bank, we are able to bring sports and education to young participants and allow them an opportunity to support children elsewhere who are denied their right to education.”