Posted by Marketing, 15th December 2016
December 15th, 2016 - The Bristol Inner City Football Academy (BICA) have agreed a partnership with sports management company, Global Image Sports (GIS) and have become the inaugural GIS youth partner club in the United Kingdom.
With nearly 300 talented young footballers in their network, phase one of this partnership will see the BICA host a GIS-led event in 2017, with professional European partner clubs in attendance, notably A.C. Chievo Verona from Serie A. Academy staff from the club will visit Bristol in the early summer of 2017 to deliver a series of coaching workshops, technical advice and identify players for a return trip to Italy to compete against the academy squads.
Future plans for the partnership include opening up places on the GIS European Residential Academy for the stand-out players in the program as well as giving the BICA access to additional GIS professional partners, which ranges from sports science and technology advice, to outsourced marketing or attendance at GIS tournaments overseas.
Founded in 2011, the BICA was created in the wake of the establishment of the Elite Player Performance Plan in the UK and has a technical and professional syllabus designed to attract the best players and give them a true sense of development both on and off the field.
GIS, having been established in South-East Asia, Oceania and North America for nearly 12 years is now looking to help and support clubs from Europe through free partnerships and by providing additional opportunities in the form of coaching, tours, technology, marketing, sponsorship or education options to US colleges and universities.
BICA Director, Patrick Williams, commented “I am beyond excited to be announcing this partnership with Global Image Sports. As someone who has built a program from scratch that is focused around the welfare and long-term aspirations of young players, it is great to see like-minded organisations out there with the energy and commitment to help us and provide platforms to new ventures.”
GIS Professional Club Liaison Officer, Darran Walter, said “We are so happy to be welcoming Patrick and his players from the Academy into our network of youth partners. They have an outstanding setup and infrastructure which we are proud to be able to help them grow. As GIS now begins to expand its operation into Europe, we see the BICA as the flag-bearer of this next phase of growth.”
Details of the first BICA event will be released in the New Year and will be available to all players in the south west region, with discounted rates for the BICA players themselves.
For more information, please visit www.globalimagesports.com or www.bicadc.co.uk
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