Win In CONCACAF With CONCACAF (WICWC) launched in St Kitts & Nevis

The St Kitts-Nevis Football Association officially launched the WICWC programme in St Kitts & Nevis on Tuesday 22 February. The event was held at the Football House in the presence of Dick Howard WICWC Manager-Youth Development, Hon Glenn Phillip Minister of Sport and Youth Empowerment, SKNFA Technical Director Lenny Lake, General Secretary Stanley Jacobs, WICWC Manager Andrea Liburd.

The WIWC programme which was launched in the federation is the first youth programme of this magnitude for the St Kitts Football Association. The General Secretary spoke of the amount that was being invested by FIFA, he explained “The WICWC Programme is a historic programme as we have been given a grant of USD$150,000. The Programme will be used for various aspect of youth development in the Federation.”

Dick Howard WICWC Regional Manager explained the background of the programme he stated “WICWC is a programme that was started by FIFA about 3 years ago. It started in Africa just before the World Cup. It was then adopted by Oceania Federation and then Austin Jack Warner President of CONCACAF felt that it would be a good programme and also applied for it to be within the CONCACAF Federation. Originally there were 9 countries in the programme and then it was expanded to 11 countries which consists of St Kitts & Nevis, Dominica and St Lucia.”

Mr. Howard also praised the SKNFA for it social development plans for the programme. He stated “each programme is tailored to the needs of the country and I am pleased that SKNFA is incorporating a social development aspect within their programme. Social development is an important part of FIFA’s philosophy and the SKNFA has partnered with the A-Ganar Programme and done the DRIVE programme which deals with the social development of youth.”

The Technical Director of the SKNFA Lenny Lake outlined the WICWC programme for St Kitts and Nevis. He explained, “The programme will consist of Club Development, Youth Leagues, Youth Coaching Courses, Youth Referee Courses as well as an Elite Player Programme. There will also be upgrade to the youth facility which will be identified; IT equipment will be purchased in order to tape and record games etc.

Mr. Lake also explained “part of the programme is to have each club adopt a primary school within their community in order to receive the benefits from the programme.”

Minister Phillip spoke about his ministry’s commitment to the programme and praised the SKNFA for the new initiative. Minister Phillip stated “the initiative has the capacity to revolutionize the social order of young people, and the nation as a whole.”

The WICWC programmes will begin with a series of community profiling. The profiling is to better understand the needs of the Clubs in the communities and the youth development programme of each club. Clubs have been sent an extensive questionnaire which will also help the SKNFA to understand the needs of the community.