Goal Programme - Asociación del Fútbol Argentino - 2002

Football is naturally the number one sport in Argentina. The Argentines impressive list of football honours is headed by two FIFA World Cup? victories (1978, 1986) and four triumphs at the FIFA World Youth Championship (1979, 1995, 1997, 2001). The national team and various club sides have also won countless continental titles. In addition to many famous players (Kempes, Maradona, Burruchaga, Aimar, Batistuta, Caniggia and Simeone, to name only a small selection), Argentina has also produced a succession of top coaches, including César Luis Menotti (1978 FIFA World Cup? and 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship), Carlos Salvador Bilardo (1986 FIFA World Cup? winner and runner-up in 1990) and José Néstor Pekerman (FIFA World Youth Championship winner in 1995, 1997 and 2001).

In the summer of 2004, the Argentine football association presented its project: renovation work on the pitches and dressing rooms in the Parque Domingo Faustion Sarmiento in the Avellaneda district in the suburbs of the countrys capital. This project will create good sports facilities, open all year round, for more than 10,000 youngsters in one of the poorest areas of Buenos Aires. The neighbourhood is home to at least three football teams from the first division, who will use these facilities for their youth development work, with summer camps one of the options available.