Qatar Airways parners with  Aspire Academy to scout future travel in Africa

Doha, December 22, 2014 (STAT):- Qatar Airways has announced its partnership with Aspire Academy to support this year’s edition of the Aspire Football Dreams project by forming “Qatar Airways & Aspire Academy – Football Dreams Africa”.

Aspire Football Dreams is a fascinating and unique project aimed at empowering the development of youth by identifying and training young football talent. As part of the Football Dreams project this year, Aspire Academy has begun scouting for football talent in Africa. Once selected, finalists will be offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to train in Barcelona and play a friendly game against one of the world’s most popular football clubs FC Barcelona’s youth team.

As FC Barcelona’s global main sponsor, Qatar Airways has been associated with a series of initiatives involving the world-renowned football team in order to spread the love of football to all corners of the world. Football Dreams Africa is the latest initiative that will offer talented young footballers in Africa dedicated training and a memorable experience of playing with one of the world’s best football teams.

Commenting on the partnership with Aspire Academy, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker said: “Qatar Airways has a proud tradition of supporting meaningful socially relevant initiatives and we believe that the Qatar Airways & Aspire Academy – Football Dreams Africa project is an excellent opportunity to make the dreams of young footballers in Africa come true. We aim to use this project as a platform to nurture budding football talent and highlight the effectiveness of sports as a key development tool.”

“Giving young people in Africa the chance to fulfil their potential while being able to make a big step towards becoming a professional football player has been very important for Aspire Academy in the past and we are happy and proud to have partnered with Qatar Airways on this project,” said Ivan Bravo, Director General of Aspire Academy, on the new partnership.

Javier Faus, First VP and the Head of FC Barcelona Finance and Strategy Department, said: “This is one more example of the projects resulting from our sponsorship agreement with Qatar Airways. Through this joint initiative with Aspire and Qatar Airways, Barça is offering the possibility for young footballers, in this case from the African continent, to be able to enjoy a unique experience and, at the same time, is reasserting its commitment to sport asatar Airways currently operates 10 flights-a-week to Barcelona which will rise to a double daily service as of February 16, 2015. The airline has seen rapid growth in just 17 years of operation, to the point where today it is flying a modern fleet of 144 aircraft to 146 key business and leisure destinations across the Middle East, Asia Pacific, Africa, North America and South America.