Role of Centre of Excellences and Academy’s
In the UK there are currently 39 academies, including 20 from the premiership and another 19 from clubs in the lower leagues. There are certain criteria (can be found in the appendix) that have to be met for a youth system to be constituted as an Academy, usually financial criteria and also quality of facilities. The academies and COE’s are essential in the development of young footballing talent in the UK; they provide the players with a high level of coaching, medical care and education (For the scholars). Academies and COE’S are the main routes that clubs use to get their young talent into reserve team football and later,1st team football. The FA has a set fixture list for academies and centre of excellences, COE’s play other COE’s, and academies do the same. There is no league for U9 to U16 teams however the FA run a youth league for youth team academies (U18’s)
The role of the ESFA
The ESFA has been delivering inter school and representative competition for 100 years. The English schools football association is the recognized governing body for all school football in the United Kingdom. Its role is to develop school football opportunities at both a primary and secondary school level. It does this by setting up competitions that run from U11 level to u19 level. Through these competitions players can move on to higher levels, e.g. district and country representative teams.
Disability Football
The FA has made football accessible to people with the following levels of disability: Blind, Partially-Sighted, Deaf and Hearing Impaired (men and women’s teams), Cerebral Palsy, Learning Disabilities and Amputee football. The FA runs 8 national disability teams to properly accommodate people with disabilities, each team having a full time physiotherapist and a fully trained advisor. The FA has also created a search programme for disability football in the UK, which enables disabled footballers to find their local club.
Women’s Football-
A survey in 2008 has found that in the UK 260,000 women play football and some 1.1 Million girls play some sort of football. In the UK there are currently 52 centres of excellences providing coaching and a fixture program for talented girls. There has been a large increase in the level of participation in girls and women’s football over recent years, in 1994 there was 10,400 women and girls who played elite level football to 150,000 today. One concern is that despite the FA’s strife to increase women’s participation in the sport, there is still a huge void when compared to the amount of men who plays the sport, with only 1,360,000 of the 7,000,000 who play the sport being women.
One of the top professional teams in the country are Arsenal, they also have one of the only women’s academies in the country, allowing talented girls to receive good coaching and education.
National Facilities:
The FA currently plans to build a national football centre in Burton upon Trent. Which once completed is intended to be the base for all England team ranging from the u16’s to the senior side, and also act as the focal point for FA coaching and player development work.
Funding Schemes:
In the UK the major funding scheme for football is provided by the football foundation. Its aim being to improve the opportunities, provide good quality facilities and to also to build football communities via grants and sponsorships. The FA, the British government and the English Premier League financially support the football foundation itself; they invest a total of £40million a year to fund new teams and projects. The main concern of the football foundation is to improve provisions at the foundation level and not the elite level. That said, it still might prove in the long term to aid elite level performance in the UK. A list of football foundation schemes can be found in the appendix.
Appendix
Schemes of the Football Foundation
Our provides money to develop new or improve facilites for community benefit. These include changing rooms or clubhouses, grass or artificial pitches and multi-use games areas.
Our aims to create opportunities and build communities by funding projects that use football and sport as a force for social change. We fund projects that address social exclusion and inequalities in education and health.
We also provide money via our scheme for small projects that aim to increase participation by both players and volunteers in grass roots football by supporting the costs associated with providing new activity.
Our provides grants to replace unsafe goalposts.
Our provides money for junior kit and equipment to under 18 teams and adults with disabilities.
is a football programme that targets some of the most disadvantaged areas in the country to create safer, stronger and more respectful communities through the development of young people's potential.
is a football programme to promote literacy and to raise reading motivation for all ages.
Our work with organisations that share our aims and objectives to deliver government targets across areas such as crime, social regeneration, health, participation, education and drugs.
The provides money for clubs in the Football League and the National League System down to step 7 and below who want to improve their facilities.