12 QUALITY AREAS
The working processes connected with the Competition Quality Area include:
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COMPETITION Quality of domestic rivals; participation in official/friendly domestic/international tournaments
How many pitches do you play competitive matches on?
Do you have a youth academy?
T he goal for any academy system is to ensure the delivery of the required level of competition in order to satisfy the demands of the development pathway. One of the accepted approaches in professional youth development is the concept of ‘talent versus talent’, which is a tool for improving players by providing them a level of Competition relevant to their current and expected level of
Do you take the children you want to bring in the club to domestic and foreign tournaments as trialists?
achievement. Depending on the goals of an academy, various performance levels and Competition qualities may be required within the development process at different times, and it is up to the academy to determine the optimal levels within a player’s development pathway. Due to the ever-growing transfer market, most clubs are also facing the need to develop players for a higher level than they can provide within their own internal structure, which further exacerbates the need to consider competitions and playing opportunities for players to
Does the first team play in the same playing style as teams in academy?
Do you have a formal process in place regarding on-loan players?
Do you have a scouting department or regular scouting service dedicated for the youth academy?*
gain the necessary experience. For this, clubs are operating increasingly complex portfolios, including competitive international tournaments such as the UEFA Youth League, which was developed with a strong participation of ECA. The quality of an academy’s Competition efforts are directly proportional to the ability of the academy to provide the required level of Competition to its players, which in turn is inextricably linked to the development plans in place, and the player pathways being designed by the academy leadership. In addition, another measure in this Quality Area could be the relative quality of rivals at domestic or international levels for different academy age groups.
“Development of players is largely down to the level of competition you play in” Liam Brady, former Arsenal FC Academy Director
Did the coach request information regarding the academy playing style when he came to the club?
Is the style of play primarily focused on the result of team or development?
* This question represents a second-order connection between a working process and the QA
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YOUTH FOOTBALL 2021-23
YOUTH FOOTBALL 2021-23
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