Dutch top flight side Utrecht have established an academy in Tamale to help to unearth and develop football talents in the north for the country.
The Tamale Utrecht Football Academy (TUFA), which is currently under construction on a 13-acre land in Kasalgu, a suburb of Tamale.
It would be equipped with a gymnasium, two football pitches with 2,000 capacities, hostels to accommodate about 40 people, cafeteria, swimming pool, managers' residence and classroom blocks.
Mr Jawhari Baba-Duah, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the academy in Ghana, speaking at the ground breaking ceremony for the construction work to begin on Saturday, said owners of FC Utrecht in Holland were fully funding the academy.
He said the aim of establishing the academy was also to help address the problem of 'human trafficking' in soccer, especially in the north to bring sanity into the sporting world.
He said the academy had already formed a second division football club known as Tamale Utrecht Football Club and the players were on a GH¢70 monthly allowance, adding that all the players were on free  medical care.
He said footballers, especially those from the north, had special talents but because of the unavailability of training facilities and infrastructure to develop those talents they always lagged behind in development.
He said those who would have the opportunity to be selected into the academy would graduate into the Utrecht Football Academy who would also have the chance to play justifiers in Holland with the mother club.
Mr Baba-Duah said TUFA had been collaborating with the Tamale football authorities to ensure that the aim of establishing the academy yielded positive results.
He advised the youth between the ages of 12 and 16 years who had the potential, to avail themselves at the academy to unearth their hidden talents.