To think the majority of kids can get into "invite only" football development programmes

I know what you mean OP, it seems to happen around year 2. Suddenly the local club isn't good enough for their future Rooney, it's all about how they've been invited, selected, chosen and how their rugrat is the most talented player they've ever seen. When the reality is 1/2 the class are also in the academy. 🤷🏻‍♀️

And beware the companies that are promising that they can get your child a football scholarship in the USA!

Alessia Russo did, THATs the level you have to be to get a good one, someone who played for England from u15.

Those companies are expensive - and unnecessary… we have a girl on route to that without any other company involved - she’s 14 now but she is immensely talented, trains 6 out of 7 days, is on a genuine academy pathway and this is her ambition. She also has to keep her academic grades up.

And she has to do this for another 4 years, before she even knows if she’ll be successful. The FA ask grassroots coaches throughout your child’s career to nominate players with genuine skill & potential for trials. If your kid is good enough there are real ways for them to realise their potential IF. And I mean IF that’s what your child really wants.
Academies spit out most of the children they take in - for all sorts of reasons.

I’m really surprised that schools provide reports for academies! Are the academies not attached to professional clubs, ie. big businesses? Why would a school provide confidential (?) information?

Yes I agree OP! I definitely see this where I am.

my DS plays with the ‘elite development centre’, which the majority of the boys on his football team also play for… it’s not that elite. There is also an academy run by the local professional team, that is harder to get in to & they do genuinely turn kids away, but again I think 3 boys in DS’s class play there with him.

All of my DC play football and have done for years. It's quite unusual for a child to be picked for city or United academy. I can only think of 2 that I know out of about 80 plus kids my children have played with 9ver the years. 6 is highly unusual and probably a bit different to what we have here.

I don't know what it's like in football, but my DS is in a swimming club where you have to pass a trial. I can only imagine that everyone who doesn't instantly drown passes the trial, because he is not great! It's good exercise though 🙂👍

I have taught a couple of kids who went on to play professional football. They were noticeably better than their peers by a very early age.

Basically - if you’re paying for it, it’s not a genuine talent academy! They have funding, money, provide kit, help with travel, make sure training isn’t too often or too much, and insist your kids still focuses on school or is in their school programme.

I handed out letters at school this week for a local Saturday morning football 'academy'.

If it's not a club academy then it's just the name the local classes have chosen to give themselves.

Club academies are different. The childen practice several times a week, prioritise it over all else and we have to fill in reports for the club and comment on things like conduct/behaviour at school, whether homework is completed on time and their progress/attainment at school. The narrative is that, unless they show that they are still performing well at school and are a decent person who is kind to others and hasn't let it go to their head, they will be kicked out.

Most of the kids who go to the local academy won't get anywhere near club academies.

Can afford the extra kit! You’ll be paying fees, paying for kit, maybe paying for activities on top.
biting a shame as grassroots football is actually usually very cheap and inclusive for kids from families who aren’t so well off.

I’m a football coach. The reality is there are loads of these ‘pathways’ and ‘academy’ springing up - there are tons of commercial companies promising that they have selected your child on their potential.

they all charge. Out of our squad of 18 u12s we have 11 players in one of these as well. They’re decent players but not one would be good enough to get on an actual Profession team pathway in an Academy.

in 6 years we have had 1 girl go to a real academy, and as soon as they do they have to drop all grass roots football.

so yes - most kids who are half decent can get into one of these ‘selective’ programmes.

my advice? If your kid loves football and wants to do extra training, and you can’t afford the extra fees and the kit- let them. Just don’t bang on about them being in an ‘academy’ because they aren’t really.

The ones near us (our nearest prem club is 2 hours away) are definitely money makers. But they do get opportunities to go to premier league stadiums and play on their pitch soemtimes. And the children that go do seem to develop skills etc ( but is that just because they have extra training 🤷‍♀️)

If it’s just the “academy” class at an ordinary kids’ football club, it probably doesn’t mean much. At DS’s old club they almost all went into the academy once they’d been going for a few months- it was just to distinguish between the boys who turned up to training every week and did their best and the boys who only came occasionally and dicked around.

The academies of proper clubs and youth training programmes are different.

It is well known that they sweep up anyone with a modicum of talent and spit them out at a later date when they are distinctly average.
I feel sorry for the kids who really think they are something because they are academy players when in reality they are just a punt the team has taken 🤷🏻‍♀️

This happened at the palace for life academy (linked to Crystal Palace but is actually a charity) after a holiday camp a few years ago. I got an email with an invite code for the “development programme”. All excited we booked then to realise anyone can join - I felt duped and disappointed and I’m not even a pushy football mum 😂

It’s the same with other privately run academies too invites dished out like sweets to unsuspecting parents for £££.

my son knows one boy who was scouted and now genuinely at pro level and he knows lots of football obsessed boys!

I think a lot of it is money making, particularly the development type squad stuff. My son played in various development/academy squads at Arsenal, Watford and Luton and there was no real point to them other than being a nice little earner.

The proper academies are different and seem to get more serious by 10 or 12. It's pretty brutal though (rugby too). I know several kids who waited all year to see if they were signed when their team mates had been. You have to really want it.

That said, as much as I've eye-rolled at parents who think their son is the next Ronaldo (particularly when it was at the expense of their school work), one of the kids recently went from Reading to the City academy and has played for England u18s so credit to him.

Unfortunately some adults take kids sports far too seriously.

We have two childrens Rugby clubs nearby... one is the junior section of a "big name" club and the other just a local rugby club. The "Big Name" club refuses to play the "local" club because they keep beating them whenever they do concede to having a game. The only difference between the children is that "big name" has high subscription fees and kit costs and the local club does a lot of fundraising to provide sport for everyone.

Unfortunately, most clubs seem to have an A team, and a B team (or a squad and a development team) and getting a six year old into a club just to have some fun is quite hard

Prob different for boys just due to numbers, but my daughter plays football for a local team. We know 3 girls who are playing with academies (mix of PL, Championship, League 1) - they are the standout players in their age group.

I don't know much about football, but my DS plays other sports and my DD was a dancer and I recognise this phenomenon. There are some talent development schemes, generally those run by a national governing body or other well recognised high performance team or school that are "real" and are usually very selective, and then there are lots of others run as essentially money making exercises by people who take advantage of the dreams/insecurities of children, or actually more often, their parents. It's easy to get sucked into thinking that everyone else is trying out for these schemes so you're letting your child down if you don't do it too, when often it's much better for them to just stay in a "normal" club or school.
Personally, I don't think that very young children should be going into any such scheme, even the good ones and parents of older children should generally approach these things with a degree of scepticism. There are lots of people jumping on the band wagon and offering little or nothing more than a good local club coach or teacher can provide, but at much greater expense. I've seen a lot of children fall out of love with their sport or hobby because they have been pushed too hard in pursuit of a dream which is just not going to come true. Fun, friendship and fitness are the really important goals for the vast majority in my opinion.

The parents are bragging/proud of their kids, let them have their moment and hope for the best for the kids. Most don't make it into club academies or are dropped by clubs if they dont fit , only a few get through to their dream of being a professional footballer and it is hard knock for a young person on the way back down.

@budgiegirl

If kids were really good, why would a football club make them pay to join? Surely they'd want to invest in them, not the other way round?

We never paid anything for academy football & kit was also free. The paid for ones aren't really proper academies - they're just a business using the name & hoping parents will pay up.

I'm reminded of Victoria Wood's comments about how she wasn't one of the popular girls and felt left out at school but now she looks at it differently because the pinnacle of those girls' lives was being the captain of the school netball team.

Perhaps everyone gets in,perhaps they don't but if it's good quality coaching then it can only be a good thing. By the time they are 11 those children will have been filtered to the more talented ready for the next level of training. Whilst very few make it as a professional player I know several that got head hunted to play soccer at American Uni/Colleges with fully funded places which was a amazing experience.

My 9 yr old plays “advanced” football at grassroots level. I don’t think much more than they’ve tiered it in the same way his groups in his class are tiered by ability.

they played a team recently who were development moving into intermediate and they beat them something like 16-0. When they play other advanced teams the scores are much much more balanced and less like rugby scores. (think 3-3 or 2-1).

in relation to academies, they will take kids at 9, sign them and that the end of grassroots football for them unless they’re let go. They cannot play for any other teams (bar a school team) from age 9 if they’re signed.

many of my son’s “Advanced” team have left to join Celtic, Rangers, Motherwell, Kilmarnock etc and the scouts actively watch their games.

I don’t really agree with children being snared by these clubs at such a young age but it’s definitely a thing and many of the kids are very serious and dedicated too.