SOCCER SETTING 1972 TARGET

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31124, 29 July 1966, Page 14

SOCCER SETTING 1972 TARGET

“We are trying to turn your children into Olympic athletes,” said Mr R. Carter, the chief coach of the Canterbury Football Association, at a meeting of the parents and officials associated with the Canterbury Olympic Soccer Training Centre last evening.

Mr Carter was explaining the efforts, aims and needs of the centre to the parents of the players, between the ages of 12 and 16, being trained in the skills of soccer. Thirty-seven parents and officials attended the meeting. The centre began work about IB months ago to give boys of above average ability coaching in the fundamental skills and tactics of the game—with the hope that the standard of soccer in Canterbury and elsewhere in New Zealand could be brought up to Olympic level by 1972. Mr Carter and several other coaches spend five nights of each week during the winter coaching about 60 boys. Although these centres were to have been established throughout New Zealand, Canterbury is so far the only association to have done so. Indictment of System “When the Canterbury team went to Dunedin we had seven players of European birth and four Kiwis,” said Mr Carter. "This is an indictment of our system of soccer. “What our children need 1« collective coaching of soccer: both as a sport, as an art, and as a science." Mr Carter said that there was a great amount of ground to be covered. It was bls task to blend the skills of the players with their desire to win. “There are probably many boys who ought to be at the coaching centre, but 1 have not seen them yet,” he said. “Those who are getting coaching are the lucky ones. "If we coach 50 boys we will be lucky to get four national representative players from them.” "The future of New Zealand soccer is bright,” said Mr Carter. “I have as many promising boys here as I did in London. The boys at the centre are an elite and some have real talent.” More Finance Needed Mr R. W. Broom, the secretarytreasurer of the centre committee said that the centre had £3 4s 9d of its own funds. "Ballins Industries promised us £2OO a year for four years and this money is being used to pay the rent on Cowles

Stadium where the coaching Is held. Rothmans are giving us £l5 a week to pay the coaches. "But if we are to stand on our two feet we need more money and we need it from a steady source,” he said. “If our alms come to fruition we hope to challenge other centres, and this will cost money; particularly when teams are sent away. Equipment, also, is a costly item,” Mr A. H. C. McDonald the chairman of the management committee gave details of the aims of the centre. Matches Planned "We hope to take the boys to the North Island in 1967 to play other centres,” he said, "if there are no other centres, and we are the only one at the moment, we wilt arrange to play a Canterbury junior representative team instead. "In 1968 the New Zealand Football Association Intends to send a team to Australia, if we are the only centre, we expect It to be a purely Canterbury team.”