Two FA coaches are heading out to Dubai this weekend to train a group of 18 Iraqi coaches as part of an on-going programme to help rebuild the country’s football infrastructure.

The Football United project is run jointly by The FA and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and is now in its third year. So far, a total of over 50 coaches have gained their second tier qualification through the scheme and have gone on to coach around 2000 youngsters in Iraq..

The FA’s Coaching Education Manager Steve Rutter and Regional Coach Development Manager John Griffiths will spend seven days working with the young coaches, who hail from all regions of Iraq, to improve their methods, knowledge and ability. Many of them are physical education teachers in schools, and the objective is to enable them to gain the FA’s Level Two coaching standard.

Despite the well documented problems in Iraq, the country are the current Asian champions following their victory over Saudi Arabia in July and the enthusiasm and demand amongst the nation’s youngsters is at its highest-ever level.

The coaching sessions will take care of only the technical aspects of football coaching for youngsters, with the coaches concentrating on how they can improve the standard of the game and abilities within their country.

Rutter has travelled all over the world delivering courses as part of The FA’s wide-ranging international development programme, but this is the first time he has been involved with the Football United project and it is something that he is thoroughly looking forward to.

“It really is a fantastic initiative and further proof of how football can be used as a real method to unite people and rise above whatever social differences there may be,” he said, ahead of the trip there on Sunday.

“It’s terrific for them to learn more about coaching and be able to take that back to their own communities and put it into practice.

“We’ll be teaching them different methodology on coaching, how to engage more players, how to make the most of their resources and how football can be used as a diversion on a day-to-day basis.

“For youngsters in places like Basra and Baghdad, football can offer something of an escape from the troubles they might have to deal with and after Iraq won the Asian Cup there has been a real surge in popularity in the game.”

Most recently, Rutter has been out in Malaysia teaching coaches from across Asia on their methods and after seeing the response received there, he is expecting a similar scenario in Dubai.

“Wherever we go, there is always a terrific response because the one thing we have is football,” he explained.

“Wherever someone may be from or whatever language they speak, football is the one thing in common between all of us and hopefully we’ll be able to help the coaches return to Iraq with a wider range of coaching methods and ability.”