Football: Finnish FC Futura to become member club of AS Roma

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Finnish football team FC Futura from the southern city of Porvoo is to embark on cooperation with the Italian super team AS Roma.
     
The joint undertaking of the teams was announced in Porvoo on Tuesday, when representatives of AS Roma visited the city to acquaint themselves with FC Futura’s activities.
      When materialised, the cooperation between the teams will mark a unique and historic event in Finnish football: for the first time a direct link will be opened for Finnish juniors to a top European team. AS Roma not only plays in the Italian Serie A, but is also one of the Champions League regulars. The club went out of the ECL this year at the quarter-final stage.
     
With a contract to be ratified later, FC Futura is becoming an AS Roma member club. The membership ties FC Futura in with a Rome-based family of football teams. The cooperation will provide Finnish juniors and junior teams with a chance to attend training camps and tournaments in Italy. The junior coaches, in turn, will get an opportunity to acquire additional training. AS Roma has 60 similar member clubs in Rome, and 30 elsewhere in Italy.
      “I hope that the cooperation with AS Roma will aid in developing the Finnish football culture as a whole. For FC Futura this is a giant leap forward. Futura opens a door for all talented Finnish juniors to Rome”, FC Futura head coach Roberto Nuccio says.
     
AS Roma junior coach Daniele Iannone says he is pleased with what he has seen in Porvoo.
      “Futura’s operating policy is very good”, Iannone says.
      Iannone coaches AS Roma’s under-18s as well as the boys born in 1997. Before AS Roma, Iannone worked as a coach in Francesco Totti’s football school. For the trip to Finland Iannone was accompanied by the AS Roma director of junior activities, Giuseppe Bifulco. Bifulco will familiarise himself with the Porvoo club’s operations on Wednesday.
     
On Tuesday, to commemorate the cooperation with AS Roma, FC Futura organised a football coaching seminar entitled “Shortcut to Rome”.
      The main speaker of the seminar was the Italian Football Association’s sports psychologist Ferdinando Consorte, who is himself a former professional footballer.
      In his lecture Consorte emphasised the importance of motivation and leadership in football coaching. He stressed the significance of playfulness in motivating both young and older players. “Why do Paolo Maldini [AC Milan defender, fast approaching his 40th birthday] and Alessandro Del Piero [the 33-year-old Juventus captain] still play?” he asked. “Because it is fun!”


Links:
  AS Roma (Wikipedia)
  FC Futura (site in Finnish)

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