LaLiga Camps is established in Spain: a commitment to grassroots football & education at the Centro ESC Madrid

In 2022, LaLiga will become a pioneer among the major European leagues by being the first to have its own camps in an exclusive complex, these football camps convert, into educational and recreational tools, some of the elements that make the club's youth academies a benchmark in football training on a global level. These short training camps are an immersion in the LaLiga experience to help players of different levels and ages to reach their maximum potential thanks to LaLiga's team of professionals and methodology.

LaLiga Camps is one of the organisation's big commitments for 2022 within LaLiga Grassroots, the new initiative to promote grassroots football at a global level. The first Spanish edition will begin in July in a state-of-the-art sports complex, the Centro ESC Madrid, promoted by LaLiga and the NBA, two leading organisations in the sports industry.

The immersive experience is based on three pillars of excellence, supported by the use of football as an educational tool:

• Education in values: The Camps are based on teaching values through sport and are held in a multicultural environment, where players from Spain and abroad will be living together. There will also be psychosocial activities, such as personal development workshops.
• Professionals from LaLiga, directly manage the camps and will select the technical staff at its headquarters in Madrid, led by coaches who meet the highest UEFA requirements, as well as different masterclasses with professionals and former players from LaLiga clubs.
• Technology and innovation: Pitches equipped with smart cameras, video analysis rooms, advanced evaluation systems, plus physical and individual performance assessment systems, will be some of the different resources available that focus on the player's development.

"With LaLiga Camps we are seeking to take the LaLiga methodology worldwide to players of different ages and levels through a unique sporting and educational experience. Focusing on the process of integral mentoring of the player, we offer them a number of tools and guidelines that allow them to improve their sporting ability and skills, but also to develop a variety of fundamental skills and values for their lives," says Juan Florit, Head of Sports Projects at LaLiga Grassroots.

"LaLiga's team of professionals will be one of the keys to achieving the objectives that the children will learn while they play, both through recreational activities and during the more than 20 hours of training per week. We have very demanding selection criteria for coaches, as they are the vehicle not only for the technical-tactical area but also for the educational aspect: we ask for a university education, especially in areas such as sport, psychology or education, international experience, and a UEFA Pro licence, the highest qualification. LaLiga coaches have great standing in the more than 40 countries where they are working with educational projects, social and high-performance programmes, and thanks to them we have already trained more than 175,000 players globally," says Javier Hernández, Head of Business and International Development at LaLiga Grassroots.

The camps, with day or overnight options, will last between 1 and 2 weeks, and aim to bring to all level of players, both male and female, between the ages of 8 and 17, and will include some of the resources and common elements that make the youth academies of LaLiga clubs a world standard: LaLiga currently ranks first among European competitions in terms of minutes played by its youth players according to the latest study published by the CIES Football Observatory in January 2022 (17.5% of the total minutes played).

A commitment to bring the Spanish youth academy experience to a global stage.

In addition to the launch in Spain, the organisation is also expanding its commitment to camps abroad, and this summer will launch LaLiga Camps UK in Sussex and LaLiga Camps USA in up to 8 different locations across the country, from Washington DC to Las Vegas.  A second edition of LaLiga Camps South Africa will also take place between 28 March and 3 April, this time in Cape Town, following the success of the first edition held in Johannesburg in 2021, which saw the participation of more than 165 children.

In Spain, the launch of LaLiga Camps will coincide with the opening of the new Centro ESC Madrid complex in summer 2022, which is expected to become a leading operations centre for the activities and projects of LaLiga and its clubs, and will also house two long-term programmes for international players: LaLiga Talents, for high-performance players, and LaLiga Academy, a system that combines academic and sporting excellence which is open to all levels.

The centre will include a residence for more than 450 people with 24-hour security, an international school equipped with an auditorium, library and laboratory, a clinic and several rooms for games, relaxation and study. It will also house two state-of-the-art football pitches and different training spaces, a basketball court, gymnasium and swimming pool.

Registration for the programmes, as well as additional information, is now available on https://www.laligagrassroots.com/en/camps