Coaching expertise to help improve Abu Dhabi talent

A three-year agreement will see Manchester City's youth coaches and technical staff visit the Emirates to train the capital's football players.

Abu Dhabi's football players will benefit from the same expertise as Stephen Ireland and Micah Richards under a collaborative deal signed between Manchester City and Abu Dhabi Sports Council (ADSC) yesterday. The three-year agreement will see City's youth coaches and technical staff visit the Emirates to share their expertise with the capital's football clubs. Similar partnerships are already in place with Italy's Inter Milan and the Spanish club Valencia.

Workshops, coaching clinics and training camps for players and staff will be run by City's youth coaching squad in Abu Dhabi as part of the partnership. The agreement with the English club competes ADSC's plans to bringing coaching strategies from three of the world's biggest football leagues to the country. "We said we had to have a partnership with international clubs, in different countries, with different schools of thought - Italian, Spanish and English" said the ADSC general secretary, Mohammed al Mahmood.

"We have a partnership with Inter Milan, one with Valencia and now with Manchester City. These teams are from three of the most important leagues in the world. "They each have different mentalities. We want to bring these mentalities to our clubs, coaches and our kids." By enlisting the collaboration of these clubs, ADSC aims to boost the quality of coaching in the capital's youth academies and the standard of youth players coming up through the ranks.

The partnership will start with a tournament between the youth teams from City, Inter Milan, Valencia and the capital's clubs. "We are in talks with the clubs. We have not decided whether it will be January or February, but it will be early next year," added al Mahmood. "We'll have Manchester City, Valencia and Inter all playing together with the youth clubs from Abu Dhabi." @Email:[e-mail]