ONE of the fastest growing football youth development schemes in the region, the BEST Soccer School has been approached by Ambo UK Premier Sport Coaching to expand its nursery and Advanced Soccer Academy.

The BEST Soccer School was formed just twelve months ago by Atherton Colls' first team manager Alan Lord with seven young footballers and this week the current register stood at over two hundred youngsters -- phenomenal growth by any standards.

Ambo UK have monitored coaching sessions and the recent Summer soccer Camp run by Lord and his team of coaches and have now offered to provide Ambo UK Mini Soccer Super Leagues at various venues in the Atherton, Leigh and Bolton area.

This will provide a three tier Soccer Academy where youngsters, both boys and girls, will initially be enrolled by BEST Nursery and subsequently into intermediate classes.

Progression from there will be through the Ambo Premier coaching classes in preparation for the Academy and Mini Super League sessions.

Lord said: "When we launched our junior coaching classes just one year ago we had no idea that the growth and progress would be so rapid.

"Now the proposed link up is just so exciting. Ambo UK are sponsored by major companies throughout the United Kingdom and have established Eurocamp Football Holidays in France, Italy and other Continental countries.

We are proud of the fact that Ambo have taken sufficient interest in us for the arrangement to get off the ground.

"Now we can offer all interested young footballers in the region the opportunity to have expert football coaching to work on their own skill levels and further their development by progressing and competing in the Ambo UK Super Mini Leagues.

"This will be the biggest football opportunity in this area for youngsters outside of the professional football arena and I am so thrilled that all those ideas and plans we had such a short time ago have now blossomed into something so exciting.

"All the coaching sessions will be structured for both boys and girls with nursery, intermediate and advanced sections for the varying abilities.

"As part and parcel of the development we will have supervised mini league games and the names of all the players, match results and statistics will be up on the Internet.

"All these sessions and leagues will be run at various venues throughout the region making it more convenient for parents to drop their kids of and pick them up.

"We have tremendous support from the local business community over the last twelve months.

"There is no doubt that we could not even have dreamed of coming this far so quickly without the financial help of Jeff Clarke, Atherton Recruitment Services, S&W Garages, Adams Garages, Wilfred Lloyd and Associates and A1 First Cars.

"Their help and support in sponsoring the BEST Soccer Schools has been absolutely vital and we just can't thank them enough.

"A lot of kids in this area have benefited greatly from their support and that is just great to see.

"We are holding the Finals Day for our Summer Soccer Schools on October 29th and we hope many people will come along to see just how good these kids are and what an exciting development this is."

Lord can be contacted for further details on Finals Day or the whole scheme on 01942 871976.