Russia ready to send coaches to Africa to prepare athletes for int'l tournaments - Matytsin

MOSCOW. July 27 (Interfax) - Russian coaches can help African athletes prepare for major international competitions, Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin said during a session of the Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum in St. Petersburg on Thursday.

"Over the past two years, we have signed ten memoranda on cooperation with colleagues from African countries [and] held meetings with representatives from African countries. We are sending a signal that sports are an important part of the international agenda. Together with African countries, we champion the principle of non-politicization of sport, [and] we thank colleagues for their clear position," Matytsin said.

"There is an initiative to create associations or a uniform for the African graduates of Soviet and Russian higher education institutions. They work in various sectors; I think our sporting community will gain another good team. We also propose expanding our dialogue on organizing joint training sessions at our facilities, and sending our coaches to help prepare African athletes for international games," he said.

"We are ready to consider applications for inviting our coaches to work with African teams on a case by case basis," Matytsin said.

"We want to propose a strategy of cooperation, a kind of roadmap for partnership in higher education within sport, which would include training professionals. At present, there are 35,000 representatives from African countries studying in Russia, [with] 23 of them at educational sports institutions. We want to increase the quotas for training specialists from African countries. We are working with Rossotrudnichestvo [the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation] on this matter," he said.

Another initiative currently under consideration involves setting up sports grounds near Russian embassies in African countries for African children to train there, he said.