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FOOTBALL-LOVING schoolchildren and their parents are in a club v coach quandary after a popular director of a soccer school quit and announced plans to launch a rival sporting operation.
Paul Shipwright and coach Deena Rahman ‘regrettably’ resigned from Arsenal Soccer School Bahrain, as reported last week in GulfWeekly.
They have revealed plans to continue coaching football in the kingdom and are keen to get a new programme up-and-running … and their former Arsenal colleagues have reacted quickly to inform pupils it’s business as normal with one of the coaching mainstays John Mackenzie being promoted and ‘improvements’ promised.
“Although we are not ready to open our new academy in its entirety, we want to continue developing the players,” Shipwright and his wife, Rahman, a Bahrain international, have told friends.
Weekly training sessions will start next Wednesday with the under-12s with a ‘match day’ on Saturday at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI)’s new sporting facility next to King Hamad University Hospital in Busaiteen, which boasts a new pitch, an indoor hall and a coffee shop. There will be more day and time options from September, they added.
Shipwright played a major role in the development of Arsenal Soccer Schools, both in the UK and internationally, and joined Bahrain-based International Business Group (IBG), chaired by Abdul Wahed Al Kooheji, to oversee a regional expansion programme five years ago.
Mackenzie will now head up Arsenal Soccer School Bahrain which is based at Soccer City in Janabiyah and new coaches will be joining shortly from the UK.
Al Kooheji claimed the school had received ‘complaints from parents that they had been contacted directly regarding another soccer school’ and a row has erupted over the alleged use of a database.
However, he added: “We are looking forward to a new chapter and intend to work on making improvements in all fields.”
Shipwright’s son Liam Tigg was on the touchline with Arsenal pupils in a tournament last weekend but parents of the U12 squad he regularly coaches have been told he will help kick-start the new academy. He is yet to formally announce his future long-term plans.
One bemused parent, who asked not to be named, said: “It’s a real dilemma. Our son supports Arsenal but would follow Liam to the moon and back! Paul and Deena are also very close to our hearts.
“Living in Saar we have also got to take into account the travel involved – all the mums and dads are meeting up this week to discuss the matter.”
