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FC Barcelona setting up shop in Ballerup

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March 26th, 2015


This article is more than 9 years old.

New academy to weed out the next Messi

It's many a Danish kid's dream to follow in the footsteps of legendary countryman Michael Laudrup and suit up for mighty FC Barcelona. In a few months' time, that dream could move that little bit closer to reality.

FC Barcelona will open its very first year-round Scandinavian academy in August this year when the Spanish football giant launches its FCBEscola Copenhagen in Topdanmark Hallen in the capital's western suburb of Ballerup.

”I am very proud to welcome the world's biggest football club FC Barcelona to Ballerup Municipality,” Jesper Würtzen, the mayor of Ballerup, said. ”The co-operation has become a reality thanks to the hard work by the local football community and we want to support that.”

”There is no doubt that Barcelona has chosen Ballerup because of our great branding value and the decision will rub off on our business community. It's a really good day and a huge welcome to Barcelona in Ballerup.”

READ MORE: DBU and national team players finally agree to new deal

Summer success
Xevi Marce, the head of the club's academy program FCBescola, looks forward to the results that the academy in Ballerup will produce.

”For four years FCBEscola has run summer football schools in Denmark, where many boys and girls have benefited from the method and values that FC Barcelona stands for,” Marce said.

”Looking at the success and acceptance that FCBEscola has achieved, we are very pleased to announce the opening of the first official FCBEscola academy in Denmark and Scandinavia.”

The Danish former Barcelona player and European Footballer of the Year Allan Simonsen will be the ambassador to the FCBEscola Copenhagen academy.


Fact Box

– FCBEscola Copenhagen is for boys and girls aged 6-16

– On May 9-10, five FC Barcelona coaches will be in Denmark to run the trials for the boys and girls looking to get into the academy. Other trials will be held at summer camps in Ballerup, Odense, Aarhus and Billund

– A professional Barcelona coach will also move to Ballerup full-time and educate eight to ten Danish coaches in FC Barcelona's training concepts

– FCBEscola Copenhagen will work closely with Ballerup Municipality and local football clubs in the area

– The children will train two to three times a week and play games every Saturday


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”