Article Nation Seychelles

Futuro Sports Sesel – Bringing young people together to re-guide them into a more disciplined environment

One of the latest buzzwords in Seychelles is ‘Futuro Sesel’ – a club/academy which specialised in football and which was set up in April 2018 to provide players and coaches with international opportunities through their development system. Today, the club has more than 20 children aged between 5 - 25 years with all have a passion for football.

Seychelles NATION spoke to one of the founders, Steve Herbots, to learn more about the club and how it aims to contribute to the betterment of young people’s lives.

Futuro Sports Sesel is about providing an elite development training for the youth of Seychelles with a professional organisational structure that includes giving international opportunity to both local players and coaches. Training is targeted at children from the age of 5 years and adults up to the age of 25 years.

The main and formal objectives of the club are to:

1. Raise funds for the purpose of carrying out the objectives of the club

2. Hire, employ, recruit or take gratuitously people considered for the proper management of the club

3. Become a member of or enter into association or other arrangement with other bodies for the purpose of furthering the objectives of the club

4. Present and promote the interest and welfare of the club

5. Help combat social ills through sports through providing international opportunity

6. Have affiliations and work together with other international and local associations and clubs

7. Provide a high standard of training methods and create a disciplined environment in order for the youth teams to work within

Children are grouped not just on age but on their ability to play, putting similar abilities together so that there is balance and that training drills can flow, explains Mr. Panayi. It also allows players that are more skilled to progress with other players.

For example, the development of an 8 year old child that is able to play and compete with a group aged 10 or 11 years old is not limited to the child’s own age group where other kids of similar age are no longer a challenge. This the Difference at Futuro Sports Sesel.

Training is innovative, different and works on many aspects of the children that many would find bizarre, but the results, as from the experience of the Head Coach, are beneficial.

Training sessions are normally 3 times a week: currently Monday and Wednesday at Mont Fleuri playing field from 15:30 - 17:00; and Thursday at the Stad Popiler from 15:30 - 17:00.

As the club stands as an association, there are subscription fees included; new children who subscribe must pay a fee of SCR 800 Rupees. This grants them 24 training sessions which is equivalent to 2 months of training sessions, when the child goes to the 3 training sessions a week.

How does one apply to become part of the team?

Futuro Sports Sesel was set up by the two founders Lucas Panayi and Steve Herbots when there was a realisation that there is a lack of a youth system in Seychelles where players can learn the basics of a sport like football, and which uses successful techniques to develop the youth.

In the case of Futuro Sports Sesel, techniques used will be according to their Head Coach, Steve Herbots, who currently stands as the most qualified coach in the Seychelles.

It was also realised that despite the huge amounts of current social issues amongst the youth in Seychelles, such as those related to drugs and alcohol, the youth still love their sports like football. It is for this reason that the founders wish to bring these young people together and to re-guide them into a more disciplined environment. Mr. Herbots gives the example of the recent world and how plenty was achieved by simply bringing people together.

Any interesting plans/events etc lined up?

In the hope of making a positive contribution to our country, Mr. Herbots says that they are looking for as many coaches that want to get involved with this project and also those who have never coached before, but have picked up an interest in learning. He also appeals to individuals and organisations to support the club and to help out in any way possible.