LoI Academies

[legendz]

The FAI also revealed that in future, funding for academies at League of Ireland level will not be split across all 20 senior men’s clubs but instead will have a three-tier system where only clubs deemed the “most progressive and who can deliver the biggest results” will get access to the first tranche of funding.
If a central body was to run academies in Ireland, at least 4 might be required. North Dublin & North Leinster, South Dublin & South Leinster, Connacht & Ulster and Munster.
Whether something like that can be achieved through investment in progressive LoI Academies might be worth consideration.

We need to reflect on how we position some of those European examples. We talk about Portugal being a shining light with seven academies, but the reality is they are the seven top-tier academies. Academies will feature in this ecosystem.
Does anyone have any detail on the seven academies in Portugal or any other European country that are seen as progressive with their academy structure?

[Kiki Balboa]

https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/ex-gaa-president-describes-dundalk-33686749

Brexit Relief to fund our Academies?

[Kiki Balboa]

If a central body was to run academies in Ireland, at least 4 might be required. North Dublin & North Leinster, South Dublin & South Leinster, Connacht & Ulster and Munster.
Whether something like that can be achieved through investment in progressive LoI Academies might be worth consideration.

Does anyone have any detail on the seven academies in Portugal or any other European country that are seen as progressive with their academy structure?

I'm pretty sure England puts clubs into categories, where a massive benefit is that there are no roadblocks stopping a player moving from a lower ranked academy to a higher... (eg. A wonder kid can move from Bristol Rovers to Chelsea for free).

[kingdomkerry]

Do all LOI clubs have an academy? Do these academics get any government or FAI funding? Do the FAI provide any coaches to any of the academics?

[legendz]

https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/ex-gaa-president-describes-dundalk-33686749

Brexit Relief to fund our Academies?

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/2024/09/15/fai-unrealistic-to-expect-money-for-academies-from-brexit-fund-says-government-source/

The Irish Times are reporting that the FAI are too late in applying for Brexit funding.

Increasing the betting tax is where the FAI have hopes to generate the money.

https://m.independent.ie/sport/soccer/10m-per-year-can-fix-academy-issue-fai/a2110874619.html

This report in the Irish Independent from April reported that €10m a year is required.

[legendz]

Do all LOI clubs have an academy? Do these academics get any government or FAI funding? Do the FAI provide any coaches to any of the academics?
All clubs have youth teams anyway. Is that classified as their academies?
The FAI could proceed with their 3 tier academy classification. If they went with Gold, Silver and Bronze, or whatever is appropriate, individual clubs could lobby locally for the funding to get up to Silver or Gold Status.
"Tier-one academies would have to provide on-site access to the Leaving Cert curriculum or a partnership with nearby secondary schools, similar to the arrangement between Shamrock Rovers and Ashfield College."
If Treaty or Kerry have a Tier 3 academy, an emerging talent would probably look at getting into a Tier 1 academy. Putting the tiered academy licences in place can at least start healthy competition and rivalry anyway, and the focus for getting the funding required.

[Buckett]

I'd say most "academies" are charging their players a few hundred euro a year for the privilege

[legendz]

I'd say most "academies" are charging their players a few hundred euro a year for the privilege
The FAI need to start to funnelling the standout emerging talent through the "better" academies. If an emerging talent from Limerick needs to go to Dublin for a Tier 1 academy, the FAI should facilitate that.

[Kiki Balboa]

Are there any relatively consistently strong academies compared to weaker men's team in the LOI?

(Eg. I think Crewe Alexander weren't tier 1 academy in England , at least for a long while).

[pineapple stu]

I don't think academies have been around long enough for that to develop.

UCD would always have been very strong at U20s level in the past for example, but that's because we got a lot of players from Home Farm/Cherry Orchard/St Kevin's, etc. We had more of a youth focus than other clubs so did better at underage. But that's not the same as saying we had a strong academy

[legendz]

"Average coaching contact time for under-17 boys at League of Ireland clubs is 260 minutes per week... 24 academies having only 10 full-time staff...
A category three English academy like Rochdale or Accrington Stanley spends up to 720 minutes on youth development."

The Irish Times are reporting that the ETP money is to be spent on the best 14-to-18-year-olds footballers in the country. This approach will treble the training hours of boys and girls with the greatest potential to make it as professionals. The sessions will take place at the FAI’s HQ in Abbotstown from next year.

[legendz]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2024/0925/1471907-canham-says-10m-a-year-would-transform-academies/

Canham banging the drum on their lobbying for €10m a year for the academies. The Brexit funding avenue closed, they'll have to put political pressure again on the need for an increase in the betting tax to fund the academies.

[Buckett]

Do governments in other countries fund academies? I would be raging if more taxpayers money goes to the FAI. It's up to the Association and the clubs themselves to sort themselves out. This lad seems like a spoofer.
Public money should be spent on public facilities, private companies should fund themselves.

[Acornvilla]

Do governments in other countries fund academies? I would be raging if more taxpayers money goes to the FAI. It's up to the Association and the clubs themselves to sort themselves out. This lad seems like a spoofer.
Public money should be spent on public facilities, private companies should fund themselves.
I'm pretty sure either directly or indirectly, yes, they do.

You're going to be furious when you look in to all of our grants and tax incentives for other businesses then. There's tons of money out there, it's long past time football started lobbying and applying for it.

Not looking for funding due to the impact of brexit when there was plenty funding available is an incredible **** up honestly worthy of losing a job over imo. I have no idea who would actually have been be in charge of such a thing but there's enough people involved at the top level for all of them to miss it is astonishing. It's one thing if you apply and get rejected, but to not even try in time, given the challenges we face, I have no words.

[passinginterest]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2024/0925/1471907-canham-says-10m-a-year-would-transform-academies/

Canham banging the drum on their lobbying for €10m a year for the academies. The Brexit funding avenue closed, they'll have to put political pressure again on the need for an increase in the betting tax to fund the academies.

The whole BAR thing is a bit ridiculous. The majority of the funding was available to retroactively cover the cost of measures taken to mitigate the impacts of Brexit. It was mainly for actions taking place between 2020 and 2023. They'd have to have evidence that they were directly impacted by Brexit and that the actions take were to mitigate against impacts on community/business. I think it's unlikely they'd have gotten anything either way, but they're so late thinking about this that it's ridiculous that it's even in the conversation.

https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/funding/brexit-adjustment-reserve_en

[legendz]

Do governments in other countries fund academies? I would be raging if more taxpayers money goes to the FAI. It's up to the Association and the clubs themselves to sort themselves out. This lad seems like a spoofer.
Public money should be spent on public facilities, private companies should fund themselves.
The betting tax seems a fair shout by the FAI though. Horse racing and Greyhounds get a lot of funding, and for what community benefit?

[Mr A]

The betting tax seems a fair shout by the FAI though. Horse racing and Greyhounds get a lot of funding, and for what community benefit?

There is some (grossly over reported) employment but mostly bugger all, and they do plenty of harm as well. But they have the right connections.

[Buckett]

https://www.thejournal.ie/fai-academy-scholarship-fund-2-6500113-Sep2024/

[legendz]

Seán Kelly MEP: Ireland must invest in League of Ireland academies — it has to be a political priority.

[Buckett]

Galway Utd appoint their first full-time academy manager

https://galwayunitedfc.ie/academy-manager/

[legendz]

The FAI are to launch a centralised coaching scheme to rectify disparity.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/arid-41585503.html#:~:text=Association%20coaching%20sta ff%20will%20spend,extended%20six%2Dweek%20summer%2 0block.

The FAI will next month begin a centralised in-house national development training programme by assembling 250 of the best aged 14-17 at Abbotstown. The intention is to bridge the contact time deficit between Ireland and similar-sized European competitors.

[culloty82]

Will be interesting to see how they'll keep tabs on players at clubs like Wexford and Longford - will the criteria be purely based on results, or will coaches at each team be encouraged to nominate who they consider to be their most promising talents?

[Elfman]

Good point and an interesting announcement from the FAI. On one hand I'm glad they're not just completely outsourcing development to the clubs. On the other hand, given how tight budgets are, I think I'd prefer to see them trying to grow the game to more places rather than focusing on the top, top talent. But it's not a bad thing I suppose.

To answer your question Culloty, and considering how players are not guaranteed their spot for a full season/year, I'd say this would be very much results based.

[Elfman]

Marc Canham was saying for player development, there are three types of models:

1. A small country - really small - where the association runs that player development. You have a national academy where all the best players come and train every day.

2. A bigger country like Germany, Spain or England. They have a really developed professional game and professional clubs, where their players train and they come to the international programme 40-50 days a year. Clubs take a lead on professional development.

3. Is where the FAI are at the moment – requiring a hybrid between them and the clubs.

Over time, he is saying the FAI want clubs to take more responsibility for that development but at the moment they need to work together.

Thanks for sharing the Irish Examiner link legendz. I saw your post in the National League thread and thought I'd respond here in case we get rebuked for derailing the topic with our interest in the academies!

I like how Canham has described the 3 models but I'd think we should be considered a small nation due to the historical underdevelopment of talent at a national level. The only drawback is I wouldn't want to hand over the running of it solely to the FAI!

Personally, I think you'd want to get to a place where the current nursery clubs have a more healthy relationship with the senior clubs so they can develop local talent but are adequately compensated when the best players leave for the underage setup in the senior clubs. This might mean permanent sell-on clauses if the player goes abroad (so nurseries don't lose out if a 16 year old switches clubs within Ireland before going abroad) as I'm struggling to see what else senior clubs can provide them.

As for the FAI, I like their plan for the 250 players to increase contact hours but I think they'll need to do more to get the €10m from the government that is needed for the rest of the country's youth.

[Buckett]

Athlone U14's beat Sligo 13-0 today. That's a bizarre result to see in an elite league.