The 2018 edition of Premier Skills India concluded on Thursday evening in Navi Mumbai with a football festival conducted for all participants. This year’s programme featured the second phase of the coaching workshop and the third phase of the referees’ workshop. A total of 71 participants from across the country had gathered for the event.

The coaching workshop, which spanned a period of six days, was conducted by Premier League Coach Educator Jez Weeks. He was assisted by Sam Hoare of Manchester City, Rashid Abba of West Ham United and Jill Stacey of Newcastle United.

Stacey perfectly summed up the various aspects that were covered during the classroom workshop sessions in an exclusive interview with indiansuperleague.com: “So, the classroom sessions have been about how we can bring football and use football as a tool in the classroom. We gave them a few different games that we can use for literacy and numeracy within the classroom that involves football to engage the children. This will really benefit the Indian coaches that we’re working with so that they can take that back to their clubs and have different ways to engage the children who may be struggling a little in school. To use football, something that everybody knows is a universal language, to take it into the classroom.”

A participant at the coaching workshop spoke to us on her aspirations after completing the Premier Skills workshop. “Initially, I started off as a coach with Premier Skills. Now I am in a phase where I am changing from a coach to a coach educator. I would want to see myself as a coach educator in the future, so that I can go back in the community and make some good coaches for the community. I think that will lead to a successful football nation.”

The referees’ workshop began on 15th May and was conducted by Garry Willard and Steve Bratt of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL). The duo addressed a variety of aspects in a series of classroom and field sessions over the course of the three-day workshop. Bratt, who made his first trip to India with Premier Skills, was extremely delighted with the quality of the Indian referees and their desire to improve through the programme. “The participants have been really great. It is great to work with people who have already got experience in refereeing and it is really important that we are able to deliver a programme that enables them to develop as much as they can to give them the best opportunities to succeed as referees.”

The final day saw the participants from both workshops take part in a football festival before they were handed out certificates in the closing ceremony.

To catch a glimpse of all the best moments from the Premier Skills India programme, click here.