Sylvia Gee, Pat Horan and Karl Byrne (Chair) Photos: Denis Byrne

By Keely Burke

PORTLAOISE AFC recently became the first soccer club in Ireland to be chosen as part of the Erasmus+ programme which saw six of the club’s coaches travel to Belgium.

Sylvia Gee, Darach Kennedy, Pat Horan, Darren Bloomfield, Caren Flanagan and Tom Culleton made the trip to their host club K. Groenenhoek Sport, which is situated on the outskirts of Antwerp.

The main aim of the trip was for the six coaches to get a glimpse of how a club in Europe was run and the differences between the two clubs, as well as seeing how a grassroots club in Belgium facilitated football for their players.

Belgium was chosen as the country due to the fact that they went from the 66th ranked country in the world all the way to the number one ranked side in the FIFA rankings.

Sylvia Gee was the Erasmus coordinator for the trip and she reached out to the Belgium FA Director of Coach Education which led to Sylvia getting six possible clubs to reach out to.

Groenenhoek Sport replied almost immediately with a full itinerary of what their four days would consist of so it was then up to Portlaoise to put through their application in February 2023. The club received the good news in May 2023 to say that their application was accepted and that a sum of €7,590 would be given for the six coaches to travel.

Their trip to K. Groenenhoek Sport  took place from Thursday 25 January until the following Sunday. The biggest difference that they found when they went over was the fact that the Belgium under-age groups don’t play competitive soccer until they are U/15. There are still leagues that they compete in but points aren’t awarded and no trophies are handed out.

All six members who made the journey to Belgium said that it was an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. They hope that they can instil the same coaching practices here that they got to see first-hand. They were delighted to have gotten the opportunity to participate in the Erasmus+ programme kindly funded by Léargas.