National Study of Football Provisions in the UK

Authors Avatar

National Study 2.3                 Football

Introduction

Football could be described as the UK’s national sport; there are currently 7 Million participants in the UK with 35,000 officially affiliated clubs in which to properly accommodate these participants. The FA is the governing body for football in the UK and it is there job to put pathways in place to develop the countries young footballers to success in the future. The FA described itself as being a not-for-profit organisation and is committed to making football a positive and inclusive experience for everyone involved in the game, allowing all participants to enjoy the game and maximise their ability”. The FA invests about 60 million back into the game each year, with 38million being invested into grass roots football.

Elite Level National Pathways

In football there are two pathways that a footballer may use, those being the school football route and the local club route. The Local club route being the far more effective of the two.

The Local club route:

  • Local Club- Academy/Centre of Excellence-Professional club contract

The School route:

  • School team- Area representative team-County-Centre of excellence/Academy

Many young footballers in the UK begin playing football at a local club. It is at these clubs that they can be identified as having a high level of talent and may be invited to have a trial at a centre of excellence or academy. Some professional clubs will also hold development centres in some areas, these act as the bridge between club football and academy/centre of excellence football. The majority of the professional footballs clubs in the UK have scouts located in their clubs catchment areas. Those identified by professional clubs as being talented are invited to have a trial, which lasts a period of 6 weeks, those who do well will be offered a one year contract, those who struggle will continue to work at the respective clubs development centre. Some clubs in the country hold open trials, this is seen more in the lower leagues, Peterborough united for example have held open trials over the years.

Join now!

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 ...

This is a preview of the whole essay