The policy and activities of each Prefectural Football Association are introduced for the following 12 themes: “Senior”, “Class 1”, “Class 2”, “Class 3”, “Class 4”, “Kids”, “Women”, “Futsal”, “Beach Soccer”, “Referees Committee”, “Facilities Committee (Environment Project)”, and “Technical Committee”. Please check out the local and regional activities in Japan.
We are introducing Class 3 activities.

The contributed article below is also posted in the July issue of JFA News in the “Regional News” section.

Class 3 Activities – Mie Football Association

“U-15 Leaders Project” by OKUI Mamoru, Class 3 Vice Chairman of Mie Football Association　

Since 2013, the 3 year “U15 Leaders Project in Mie” program aims to encourage 2nd year junior high school players to lead dissemination and growth of football in Mie

For the first year, 9 players from different places in Mie had activities throughout the year. The players learned various things by having discussions and participating in organising football matches. A player who joined in a discussion about quality of leadership and its action stated in his essay that his image of a leader is the person who leads the team to achieve the aim which he indicated to the team regardless of age, ability, or position. The player also wrote in the essay that he has never met any leaders (coaches of local sports groups) who forced people, pushing his ideas, or requires impossibly high standard of play.

Also, the players work with the group of referees at their training centre matches to learn a fair-play spirit, the role of the referee and respect. One of the players who had this experience said “I have got to know that referees work not only during a match but also to prepare well before the match. We players have to respond to them with fair play and show our respect to both referees and opponent team. I learned that it is good to prepare well when I work on anything. Fair play means that people play safely and impartially. Our attitude even off the pitch can lead to fair play for example by not complaining about somebody and by avoiding doing something that somebody else doesn’t like. Also I think that rough play would cause bad things even in your life”.
We have updated some other detailed activity reports on our official website, please check it out.

We aim to encourage U-15 lead players to be “happy to consider about what to do both for yourself and for your team, and to collaborate with your team mates at anytime, anywhere, and with anyone - including team staff”. This is why we have activities to enhance individual initiative, ambition, and cooperativeness of young players. We expect all of the U-15 players to grow up through the relationship they have with many people and that they will contribute not only to football but also to their schools, societies and communities which will allow them to grow more in the future.