May 19th and May 18th the 2012 edition of the Ford Roeleveld will take place in Nieuwegein. The tournament has 2 age categories u12 and u14. Training Trips arranged a few top academy sides to this tournament. For the U12 tournament Paris St Germain and for the U14 tournament FC Kopenhagen, Tottenham Hotspurs and PSV. More information about this tournament can be found on their website.

10 coaches of the Welsh Football Trust were visiting PSV Eindhoven on a study trip from 12-19 March. They were visiting PSV’s training ground the Herdgang and were able to attend all kind of  training sessions and meeting people from different disciplines, e.g., technique training sessions from the youngest age groups and training sessions of the first team lead by the new management team of Philip Cocu and Ernst Faber. Highlight of their visit of PSV was absolutely the 30 min Q and A with assistant manager Ernst Faber of the first team.

To compare the organisation and structure of PSV Eindhoven they also visited FC Eindhoven, the ‘first division’ club of the same city. Watching the first team training and having a presentation of new appointed first team manager Pascal Maas was very useful.

They also visited one of the local grassroots clubs Geldrop during a training night of the youth. Youth Coordinator Adrie Meeuwsen guided them trough the youth set up which was similar in organisation and not to far of the level of PSV Eindhoven.

Richard Gunney, of the Welsh Football Trust said:
"..On reflection, the trip was a fantastic experience and one of great value. The hospitality and generosity of the clubs, coaches, staff and everyone involved was excellent. The schedule and access provided was of an excellent standard meaning a great deal of positive information could be utilized and communicated back in our country"

From April 1st till April 5th the U14 team from Hapoel Ramat HaSharon will stay in The Netherlands. Their first team is playing at the highest level (Ligat Ha'Al) for the first time.

The U14 team is part of one of the best Youth Academies in Israel. On April 2nd Hapoel will play against FC Utrecht and on April 3rd they play in Germany against Borussia Dortmund. Besides playing games they will also visit the Amsterdam Arena where AJAX will play against Heracles. On the last day of their trip they will visit the Anne Frank House.

The womens team of Dutch Champion FC Twente enjoyed a great training trip in Barcelona. All training sessions were organized in the stadium of CE Europa (3rd club Barcelona). The training conditions were ideal here. Great weather, good pitch and a great atmosphere to train (in centre Barcelona).

Besides training FC Twente also played 2 friendly matches. On monday they played against RCD Espanyol (number 3 of Spain). Espanyol took the lead in the first half however FC Twente performed much better in the second half. As a result they won with 4-1!

On wednesday they played against the topteam of Spain which is FC Barcelona! The game was organized at the Joan Gamper Centre (trainingfacilities of FC Barcelona). This made the game extra special. It was a very good game where both team had a lot of chances. In the end FC Barcelona won with 2-1.

Finally we can conclude the trip was very succesful with good weather, top level games, wonderful training facilities in a great city!

A picture gallery of the trip can be found here.