Doha                                                                                                                                                                                     27 April 2018

Aspire Academy received recently President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Ahmad Ahmad.

Ahmad was welcomed by Ivan Bravo, Director General of Aspire Academy, who took the guest on a tour at the Academy’s facilities and services.

During the tour, Bravo briefed Ahmad on the progress of Aspire Academy and its leading role in shaping the sports map of Qatar and sports development in general.

Bravo and Ahmad both explored ways of joint cooperation between the Academy and the CAF, especially in the field of promoting the culture of football at grassroot level and the Academy's experience in discovering football talents.

At the end of his visit to the Academy, the President of CAF said that the world-class facilities of Aspire Academy were brilliant and expressed his admiration of the philosophy of the Academy in developing young people and honing their talents in what serves the best interests of Qatar national teams and the wide sports sector.

"I visited Aspire Academy today and I am sure that it is doing everything possible and for its student-athletes to achieve their goals of becoming high-level professional athletes," said the CAF president.

"Based on what I heard from the Director General of the Academy, I am confident that they are on the right track to form a strong Qatari team capable of competing at the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar™", he added.

"From what I saw during my visit of the Academy, this project, and looking at it from different angles, both the infrastructure and the planned programs, will ultimately achieve the desired goals; however, we have to wait and see the initial results at the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar™, which seems to be one of Aspire Academy's main objectives”, Ahmad Ahmad said.

“At all cases, Aspire Academy will continue to be an important tool for development. I believe that this project will help develop football in Qatar and the world through joint cooperation, which will develop many things in the sports field", the President of CAF added.

"I believe that is what this unique and great sports project is all about. It offers the potential, the means, and the capabilities to make the best use of it. All the factors and the means to success are available, and I can say that Aspire Academy is a true model that continuously provides services to athletes in light of Qatar’s leadership willingness to assist and support other countries and to cooperate with them as well as continental associations, they help everyone”, he concluded.