EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Those working in football academies are well-versed when it comes to developing
talented young players on the pitch and well- rounded human beings off it. But how do they deliver this in practice?
W hich working processes are academies using, and which ones in particular are being used by Europe's leading clubs? And which practices, if any, are the most
Desk research, overview of existing literature and statistical analysis
Survey focused on processes in youth academies
intercorrelated? These are among the many questions football clubs across all levels of the professional game are asking as they strive to improve their daily routines. This is where our research comes in. Enabling those in the game to have a better understanding of the overall academy ecosystem is a major motivating factor in producing this publication. The starting point was to follow-up the original ECA publication from 2017. It was here that the 12 Quality Areas concept was first introduced, and it provided a detailed explanation of the different pillars and their impact on the youth development process. Now, this brand new report includes an enhanced overview of the 12 QA and each of their sub-components, demonstrating how they interrelate with academy working processes, and evaluating their relative
creating a new survey designed for analysis by inferrential statistics delivers much more value. This new survey was specifically focused on various academy-level working processes and centred around a number of process groups, spanning the entire youth development pathway. Recognising indicators of development of successful youth academies is a step ahead of the current approach and unearths new content for experts. This will lead to a greater understanding of the factors that have a significant impact on the quality of individual youth academies.
Semi-structured interviews with youth development experts from other clubs
Semi-structured interviews with Youth Task Force members
“Everything is in this publication! It is up to the clubs to use it, as providers to and producers of players!” Liam Brady, former Arsenal FC Academy Director
significance via quantitative statistical methods. For the qualitative part, the youth report team carried out semi-structured interviews with 18 academy representatives around Europe to capture snapshots and best practices. On the quantitative side, all surveys that had been conducted previously in relation to development were analysed using descriptive statistics. These are not designed for analysis by inferrential statistics. Although interesting data was generated,
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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YOUTH FOOTBALL 2021-23
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