A ROYAL Wootton Bassett football coach is spearheading the FA’s drive in Qatar to get children as young as three to take up the sport ahead of the next World Cup

Nathan Ellis, who is part of the town's sports association, spent six days in Doha instructing 15 coaches from two Middle East countries as part of the country’s Generation Amazing programme.

The move to promote soccer at grassroots across the region is part of an agreement between the UK and Qatar in the run up to the 2022 tournament, which Doha is hosting.

Mr Ellis, 39, who is a senior FA tutor and head of recruitment at UK International Soccer, said: "The FA wants to help everyone to play the game, so that’s children as young as three or four, all the way through.

"It’s about inspiring young people, not just playing football, but through the use of football, to send certain messages to inspire children to be healthy, to be good people, to look to the future, to look after one another, to look after themselves and inspire others to do the same’.

It followed a Memorandum of Understanding which FA Chairman Greg Clarke signed with the Doha government in February for a knowledge-sharing partnership.

He said: ‘We have a long history of collaboration with various national associations to share knowledge and experience to support the development of football. For Qatar, developing the game across the country is a key objective as they approach the hosting of the FIFA World Cup in 2022."

As well as the training sessions, there are also plans for the England team to play friendlies in Qatar so players can get acclimatised to the hot weather.

Generation Amazing has so far reached more than 250,000 youngsters around the world. Doha hopes it will be a million by the time the tournament kicks off.

Its aim is to use sport to enrich lives, often in poor areas such as refugee camps in Jordan as well as Nepal, India and The Philippines.

During his visit Mr Ellis taught coaches, from Qatar and Oman, so they can pass on the skills they have learned to boys and girls in the communities where they live.

He followed a similar programme to one that’s given to around 20,000 grassroots coaches who do the FA level 1 course in the UK every season.He said: "Everyone has been very engaged and open to new ideas and I was able to introduce the coaching philosophy and methodology we use in England. It is for them to consider and use if they find it useful. This was a very diverse group, which makes for a great course. We have coaches that are very experienced and highly qualified, and others that have never coached before."

Haitham Al Balushi, 42, from the Al Habsi Academy in Oman, said: ‘We were able to take a lot of useful learnings and experiences from the English coaches and other participants. I have learned new principles of play and training methodologies which I can apply back home in Oman."

Qatar has said it hopes its World Cup will benefit the whole Middle East, which has never hosted the tournament before.

But it is being hampered by a year-long blockade of the tiny Gulf state by a Saudi-led alliance which could continue until the tournament and beyond.

Hassan al-Thawadi, the Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, said: ‘The World Cup has always been a Middle East and Arab World Cup.

"To think there are people in the region who might not enjoy the first World Cup in the Middle East is very disappointing. We look forward to this matter being sorted out. Football is for the people – and we want this tournament to reach the people of the region."