Category: Academies

The Gaël Kakuta affair has highlighted the flaws of a system which ruins careers but produces few results. Players at the Liverpool academy listen to their coaches but very few talents go on to represent the first team of the top clubs.

In the aftershock of Chelsea’s sanction for signing Gaël Kakuta when the teenager was contracted to play for Lens, the most vital issue highlighted by the scandal is only slowly dawning. It is not whether FIFA should really have classed Kakuta’s agreement with Lens as a contract, or whether Chelsea’s lawyers will successfully nitpick the detail to claim a reduction of the two transfer window ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

No, the real challenge is to understand why one of England’s top football clubs, which like 40 others has spent millions of pounds developing an academy, and can sign up huge numbers of boys from a very young age, has failed to bring a local player through since 28-year-old John Terry, and scours other countries’ clubs for teenage talent.

It is 12 years since Howard Wilkinson’s FA document, Charter for Quality, overhauled youth development, removing good, young players from representative school and youth club football and establishing academies, thereby granting extraordinary power to the professional clubs. Wilkinson’s view was that professional football clubs had expertise in coaching which schoolteachers and volunteer amateur coaches did not – although the clubs then mostly recruited schoolteachers to run their academies.

Clubs’ academies – there are now 41 in the Premier and Football Leagues – were accorded the right to register 40 boys each year from as young as eight until 12. After that, youngsters are progressively shedded until, at the age of 16, 20 or so are selected as full-time “scholars”.

This, according to a new book, Every Boy’s Dream by Chris Green, which skilfully analyses the successes and deficiencies of the academy system, constitutes “recruitment of children on a massive scale”. It also institutionalises mass rejection of young people as too few of those who come through are actually given opportunities to play in clubs’ first teams.

Green, while acknowledging the investment and improvements made in the system, laments this futile recruitment of infants, finding that youth development experts themselves admit it is too young. He chronicles the disappointment, educational underachievement, even trauma, suffered by some boys who give much of their childhoods to academies only to suffer inevitable rejection at tender ages. The Premier League’s general secretary, Mike Foster, is quoted as accepting that although efforts are made – not always successfully – to break bad news sensitively, his league and its clubs do not bother to find out what happens to the youngsters who are released.

Academies

Some 10,000 boys are currently performing in top clubs’ academies and centres of excellence, and uncalculated thousands more in development squads and “shadow” development squads, run because youth directors have to be sure no child is being missed. Green gives due credit to the system’s merits: the clubs have invested abundantly and continue to spend an estimated £66m a year on staff and mostly excellent facilities. Some of the coaching is expert, many of the staff are highly professional and dedicated.

Huw Jennings, who resigned as the Premier League’s head of youth development this year to run Fulham’s academy, argues this has borne fruit: “The skill levels, ball mastery, balance and flexibility of our young players is better than ever,” he claims.

Parents giving up to much for 1%

Yet while parents give family life over to ferrying boys to training three nights a week and matches on Sundays against other professional clubs’ academies many hours’ travel away, the reality is that just 1% of the trainees will ultimately play football for a living.

Even the few who survive the annual cuts and make it to a “scholarship” at 16 are likely to fall away. Research tracking academy boys is itself difficult to find but it is accepted that only a minority of boys awarded “scholarships” remain in the professional game at 21. Of those who win the golden ticket of a proper, professional contract at 18, the vast majority, Green found, are also not playing professionally at 21.

Give Kids a chance

This summer, Jennings made his farewell speech to the clubs’ owners and chief executives, imploring them to give academy youngsters more opportunities. In Europe, he says, players make first-team debuts at 21-22; here they are thrown into Carling Cup games or substitute appearances at an average of 18 years and four months, and judged critically on those performances. “Players are not afforded the chance to mature,” he argues. “Reform is desperately needed for the 18-21 age group.”

“It won’t be long before kids in nappy’s are recruited”

There is, startlingly, broad agreement among those who actually coach that clubs should not be signing boys as young as eight because their potential cannot be reliably assessed, and too much pressure and expectation is loaded on them at pre-teen ages. Children, most youth coaches accept, should be playing all sports recreationally, with the best coaching available, to develop all-round skills. Yet because football clubs need to stock academies beginning at Under-nine level, they are scouting children at six and even younger. Green cites the desperate instance, famed in youth football circles, of a four-year-old, scampering about in a Premier League club’s development squad with a nappy clearly visible under his shorts.

Brian Jones, head of Aston Villa’s academy, is scathing. “Aston Villa spend a fortune looking at boys from six years old onwards,” he complains. “With the best will in the world I wouldn’t know if a six, seven or eight year old is going to play in the Premier League in 10 or 12 years’ time. It’s ludicrous.”

Dave Parnaby, another former schoolteacher who heads Middlesbrough’s successful academy, agrees, arguing that registration to an academy should not start until boys are 12 and at secondary school. “No one disagrees,” Parnaby asserts. “I have written to the FA and Premier League but what is being done?”

The answer is inertia. On this most fundamental of the sport’s responsibilities, there is a vacuum of leadership and a familiar, dismal turf war between the FA, Premier and Football Leagues. Trevor Brooking, the FA’s director of football development, seethes with frustration that the FA is not permitted to monitor the quality of academies, and there is no central body, staffed with actual football experts like himself, to reform and run the system. The leagues argue they do not want the FA overseeing their clubs’ work and that Brooking should concentrate on rolling out coaching courses tailored specifically to different ages. He argues this has been done, but the FA’s Professional Game Board has failed to invest in recruiting more than a pitiful, single national coach for each of the 5-11, 12-16 and 16-plus age groups.

Jennings laments the absence of strong, national leadership. “It is football governance at its worst,” he says. “We desperately need unity of purpose but youth development is in a state of limbo.”

This, then, is the state we are in. Professional clubs, rich as oligarchs, trawling for boys their own coaches know are too young, giving scant opportunities to the few who come through, while waving their wallets to likelier lads in other countries. It is a system crying out for reform, from top to bottom.

Research: Article By David Conn from the Guardian

Kildare Soccer School

Mike O’Toole is the coach behind this new Academy in Kildare and I spoke to him recently and asked him;

What is the Kildare Soccer? Kildare Soccer School is an academy that aims to encourage better coaching and football education for young players. Kids can join our academy or join our club after the summer if they are not currently playing with a club.This is not a business but a community idea and anyone who does not have the money will not be excluded. It is not about training elite players but any kid that loves to play soccer. I also want to meet coaches and share our ideas and want to find young coaches that want to get involved in coaching football

Why did you set it up? Its came out of a desire to get my ideas together and the fact that people want you to have a site to check the details of where your academy is and stuff. Its a static site not a campaign as such. I wanted to get back involved with coaching kids but I wasn’t what club I would join. Out of respect for the players I did not want to get involved with a new team and then have to leave so I was careful not to jump on board with another club!

A  friend who’s u14s I coached recently asked me to get involved with them. I met the chairman and they only have a senior team and u14s team, so this will effectively be their academy if it works out.I wanted to leave it open so kids from other teams could come , because in the summer I move to the fantastic facilities at Clongowes for training.

Who is it aimed at? Its aimed at kids who are just starting out or just want a new start, kids who want to be listened to and kids who want equal playing time. I have a diploma in life coaching as well as in interest in football so maybe I could help some coaches who want to  rethink their own coaching philosophy or ideas about coaching.

Can any coach get involved with it? I really hope to get some young coaches involved. I had some young lads 16+ helping out when I last ran a summer camp. This is important to educate young lads who want to be involved in proper coaching and gives them a role a well. This is an important issue to bring in younger coaches.

When is the next training session and where and how can kids join? Training is on Sundays at RedLane Sports, its 10 mins from Naas and Newbridge. From €3 euros per session,there are some free places available as well. Time: 1030am to 1130am.  see the venue at http://www.redlanesports.com

Are you recruiting at the moment? No , I really don’t see this as a business at all. I will put up a few posters but we will fill it easily with word of mouth and then see where to take it.

We all know how much time and effort we coaches put into coaching our own team, how will you make the time for this also and your business too? This is an issue for everyone associated with teams. At the moment I will do only one morning a week. This was another reason not to jump in and take a club team, but also because I didn’t want to buy into some of the approaches and ideas that some clubs have in how they see football in this country.We need a new playing style and new approach to coaching and that can get lost in a bigger club.

To get in contact with Mike log onto http://www.kildaresoccerschool.com for more information.

The Coach Diary would like to wish Mike the very best with his new Academy

Sporting is a sport clubs renowned for it football department with over 100,000 members. Its Football academy in Lisbon is one of the best in the world. In May this year Sporting will open its first football school in Toronto. It plans to open Academies in South Africa, Saudi Arabia, South America, US, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan and in Europe.

The Coach Diary and David Berber of DB Sports tours spent 3 days in Lisbon at the u6-u13 School and Sporting’s Alcochete Academy..

Sporting world-class football training facility (Academia Sporting in Alcochete), which accommodated Portugal during the Euro 2004.

Famous for its football youth academy system which features a range of well-equipped facilities and is one of the most renowned in the world, Sporting has continuously developed many world class footballers.

Sporting spent over 8 million euros on the academy (The Academia) that houses training for all their teams from U13 to the professional side.

Opening in June of 2002, it is one of the finest faculties in Europe.  There are five lighted fields exclusively for training, one artificial grass field and one small stadium with seats for over 1000.  The ‘B’ team and youth teams for league games use this facility.

There is a 65 X 45 yard roofed artificial field for training in special conditions. All the modern training necessities, i.e. free kick walls, outdoor pool, portable goals (both regular and special size), pendulum balls etc. is provided for the coaching staff and set up by the managers.

The Academia has a hotel with 46 rooms, half on the youth side for players’ aged 14 and above who might live there and half for the professional players who use them between their frequent two-a-day training sessions.  Player’s lounges, dinning rooms, and club official’s offices are housed here.  The youth facilities are separate for the profession ones and include state of the art weight rooms and special rehab rooms.  The locker rooms are kept separately and the staff members care for all the equipment each day.

Sporting Academy was the first and only sports academy in Europe to receive the ISO9001:2008 – a quality certification awarded by EIC, a Portuguese society responsible for this type of reward, which is recognised both locally and internationally.

This is a testimony to Sporting’s excellence in several different areas, such as: their ability to raise up youngsters not only athletically, but also academically; Sporting responsibility towards ethical and social aspects, as well as their struggle to maintain the club values above everything else; quality of their infrastructures/facilities; their coaching and medical staff skills.

Sporting Club De Portugal is Business

In 1996, Sporting began a new lease of life, with José Roquette and others leading Sporting into a period of modernisation. Miguel Galvão Teles, Dias da Cunha and Ernesto Ferreira da Silva played their part in approving new statutes and laid the foundations for a business group and Society of Soccer Sports (SAD) which was admitted into the Portuguese Stock Exchange in 1998. New measures were also adopted to encourage transparency in the business relationships of the Club, as well as in tax and social security matters. This ambitious process of modernisation took place long before Portuguese candidature to host Euro 2004 was organised.

The reshaping of Sporting during this period became known as the “Projecto Roquette” (“Roquette’s Project”), a program of dynamic modernisation of the club on three fronts: sports, through the rationalisation and optimisation of resources; finances, providing the club with multi-functional profitable elements; and finally the modernisation of the club’s organisation, combining dedication and professionalism in a way that dealt with the present without mortgaging the future of the club

Also in 1998, Sporting began the design and construction of a new generation stadium. The stadium was inaugurated on 6 August 2003 and is rated amongst the best in the world (it was classified by UEFA as a 5-star stadium)

• The only club in the world that has developed through their academy two FIFA world players of the year.
• Luis Figo (2001)started in Sporting age 13 and Cristiano Ronaldo (2008) started in Sporting age 12.
  
• Currently has 7 players in the 1^st team which came through the Academy
• 10 other players internally developed are playing for 1^st teams
• Transfer out last year over 20million for Joao Moutinho and Miguel Veloso
• 2010/2011 3 new players coming up from the Academy have integrated into the 1^st team, Vitor Golas, Cedric Soares and Andre Santos
• Average of 7 players on each Portuguese national teams from u16 to u19 (10 sporting players are currently on Portugal’s u17 national team)
• Since the new academy open in 2002, 24 players from the youth teams integrated in Sporting professional teams
• Since 2002 the Academy have developed more than 100 players currently playing in professional football in Portugal (75) and around Europe (25)
• Since 2002 Sporting obtained gains of more than €90m with transfers of players developed in the Academy
• The museum situated in stadium of Jose Alvalade has more than 16.000 Cups and Trophies.

Paulinho:

There is a very special story at Sporting Club De Portugal and what was once a young boy called Paulinho.  He was hit by a car and lived for months in a coma.  During this time his family abandoned him and he was given very little chance to survive.  During his coma months the only thing that seemed to get any response from him was when the doctors would start talking about Sporting.  When he eventually got better the doctors asked if he Sporting would take care of him.  He has been at the club for 20 years now helping to take care of the kit of the first team.  He is loved by all the players and fans and is one of the most recognizable personalities on the team.  The times when he leads the team out, the biggest cheer is for Paulinho.  He never pays for anything when out in Lisbon, lives by himself and the players take turns inviting him to their houses for the holidays.  In 2000 FIFA recognized him with a special award at their world awards ceremonies. We had the pleasure to meet Paulinho during our visit at the Academy, he was busy organising the teams equipment for the training session that day.

Sporting methodology is proven to be one of the best in the world and they continue to produce players year after year for both Sporting’s senior team, the national team and players for the larger European market.

Our visit to Sporting Academy in Lisbon, was truly breath taking and something I will never forget; as a boy who grew up with the Green and white of Sporting plastered all over my bedroom walls, I could never have imagined that one day I would be back at the Club I have loved my entire life and to get the Hospitality we received from Diego and Renato just made this experience unforgettable.

Sporting Club de Portugal’s Academy coaches will be coming to Ireland very soon.

Obrigado Sporting, Diego & Renato

A special thanks to Rob Cassidy our photographer and videoographer who never stopped snapping!!