12 QUALITY AREAS
The working processes
3
FINANCES
connected with the Finances Quality Area include:
Percentage of club budget spent on youth development; revenue generation mechanisms; academy budget structure, financial planning horizon
Do you have a selection process or is any child of any ability free to attend?
Are training camps or talent days free or cost a fee?
F inance within the academy system relates to the dual aim of ensuring the correct amount of investment to sustain the delivery of all the other Quality Areas through academy operations, alongside the economic benefits or relevant revenue streams brought about by those operations. The quality of financial planning within academies is relatively new. As stated in a previous ECA study on youth
Are transfer fees from graduates sales put back into the academy?
academies, they are mainly seen as a cost centre rather than a revenue driver. The activity cycle in youth development is so long, and the returns often delayed, that it is sometimes easier not to set economic targets, and instead focus on productivity (another of the Quality Areas). Leading clubs are investing significant resources into their youth development programmes, so it is only natural that returns are increasingly required and monitored, including financial. However, the level of sophistication of
Do you invest in infrastructure in your partner clubs?
“To sell a player, first we need to bring him into the team”
Do you estimate market value of academy players?
Does the coach ask the academy about players in position(s) he wants to strengthen in the transfer window?"
Per Agren, Malmö FF
Do you have your own budget for
the youth academy?
financial planning and management in academies remains inconsistent, whether due to a lack of knowledge, personnel, tools or vision. It is an area clubs can improve, especially when so few academies plan further than one or two years. A full talent development process for an individual player can take anything up to 10 years or longer, which means that players graduating at the age of 18 or 19 are doing so on the back of decisions taken a decade or more ago. The level of the Finances Quality Area can be objectively measured by certain financial markers and ratios, such as the percentage of club budget spent on youth development, as well as the demonstrable quality, longevity and robustness of planning processes used by academy and club management.
Does the club define the budget of the youth academy before season?
Are there rules related to the calculation of value delivered by the academy if a player is promoted to the first team?
Do you have rules in place related to selling players from the youth academy before
they play in first team?
Which percent of total budget is academy budget?
Do you have a youth academy?
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YOUTH FOOTBALL 2021-23
YOUTH FOOTBALL 2021-23
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