All bases covered at Hamburg workshop

The second day of the 8th UEFA Grassroots Workshop in Hamburg featured presentations on children's football from two Scandinavian representatives, a host of discussion groups and more practical sessions as the attendees continued to enjoy a rich and varied programme in the German city.

Danish example
The first speaker to take to the stage in the conference hall was Thomas Slosarich, the youth development coach of the Danish Football Association (DBU), who focused on children's football in his country. "Grassroots football is one of our priorities in Denmark," he said. "Some of our schemes are more than 20 years old so, of course, we're constantly evaluating them to ensure they're still relevant." He then talked delegates through the DBU's star programme for grassroots football – a transfer of the UEFA Grassroots Charter plans down to national level – explaining: "We focus on quality; we believe that if the quality is there, the number of grassroots players will increase as a result."

Norway's secrets
Next to speak was Stig-Ove Sandnes, the deputy general secretary of the Norwegian Football Association (NFF), whose president and UEFA Executive Committee member Per Ravn Omdal gave a video message from Norway including the phrase "Our future belongs to the children". Under the umbrella slogan, Football for All, Sandnes gaves 12 reasons for Norway's success at grassroots level: definition, statistics, the NFF's strategic plan, small-sided games, local leagues, rules and regulations, grassroots education, facilities, football schools and tournaments, Fair Play programme, football for girls and a political presence.

Discussion groups
The workshop broke into six discussion groups to debate the challenges facing grassroots football around Europe, with the participants also given the chance to discover how things work in other countries. The morning concluded with a brief outline of the theory behind the afternoon's practical acitivities, which were held at the Millerntor-Stadion, home of FC St. Pauli.

Practical sessions
The first of those three practical sessions was conducted by German Football Association (DFB) project manager Ulf Gebken, who worked with Under-10 girls to emphasise the role football training can play in social integration, particularly with reference to the children of immigrant families. Uwe Jahn, the head coach of the Hamburg regional association, then took a session showing best practice with U12 boys and girls which concentrated on getting the youngsters comfortable with the ball, working specifically on their control and passing and shooting. The sessions were organised with the support of Ulrike Ballweg, assistant national team coach of the German women's side.

Badge of honour
Workshop attendees were invited to join in the third and final practical session, which looked at the DFB's football badge for grassroots coaches under the guidance of the association's head of grassroots department, Wolfgang Möbius. Aimed at all age brackets and targeting new members, the badge scheme had approximately 100,000 participants and 1,600 events in 2008, and the DFB hopes to increase those figures by 100 and 70 per cent respectively this year. Those three stimulating sessions brought the second of three days at the workshop to a close.