25°16′05″N 51°26′37″E / 25.268071°N 51.443605°E / 25.268071; 51.443605 Aspire Academy (Arabic: أكاديمية أسباير, romanized: Akādīmiyat 'Asbāyr) is a sports academy based in the Aspire Zone in Qatar, founded in 2004 with the goal to scout and help develop Qatari athletes, whilst also providing them with secondary school education.
أكاديمية أسباير | |
Former names | ASPIRE Academy for Sports Excellence |
---|---|
Location | Al Rayyan, Qatar |
Coordinates | 25°16′05″N 51°26′37″E / 25.268071°N 51.443605°E |
Opened | 2004 |
Website | |
aspire |
Aspire Academy was established by an emiri decree, No. 16 of 2004, as an independent government-funded agency that reported directly to the Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani through the heir apparent, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani.
Later, an emiri decree – no.1 of 2008 – incorporated the Aspire Academy as a strategic business unit (SBU) into the new, parent organization of Aspire Zone Foundation. Despite the switch from an independent government body to an SBU, the original purpose and objectives of the Aspire Academy remained the same.
On 17 November 2005, the Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani led an opening ceremony of the Aspire Dome, essentially signaling the global announcement of Aspire Academy as an international institute of high standing. Over the years, it has received international recognition.
Aspire own Spanish team Cultural Leonesa and Belgian team K.A.S. Eupen. In August 2017, Spanish side Atlético Astorga FC announced links with Aspire Academy. The link up saw some Aspire based players join the club. As of 3 January 2018, Aspire also have an official partnership with Leeds United in England. They also have a satellite academy in the African country of Senegal.
In January 2019 and January 2020 the complex hosted the Match Premier Cup friendly tournament.
In September 2023, the Aspire Academy and Qatar Football Association (QFA) signed a cooperation agreement to further develop the coaching education system and enhance their joint expertise.
In 2014, the Qatar U-19 national football team, composed solely of Aspire Academy student-athletes, won the 38th edition of the AFC U-19 Championship in Myanmar, for the first time in Qatar's history. With the same Aspire players, the senior side managed to win the nation's first ever AFC Asian Cup in the 2019 edition.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia English article Aspire Academy, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.