Debate - Future of Youth Development in Irish Football

[Eminence Grise]

Quinn has some good ideas - it's hard to argue against every club having an academy providing coaching and education. Partnering with people who do it as a business could save time, money and prevent mistakes. Imports to naturalise - no thanks. Tax breaks, well, if you're a big company paying the headline rate of corporation tax you need a new accountant. There are already plenty of breaks. I'm sure a lot of you here know more than I do about that.

He may be pooh-poohing the idea that he could be CEO of the FAI, but CEO of a new national league? That's a different kettle of fish, I suspect...

[tetsujin1979]

What would be the difference between the academy and the existing link up with schoolboy club?

[osarusan]

I'd definitely be in favour of more regional academies/centres, and easier/regular/free access to those centres for LOI youth systems. But I wouldn't really think it's wise to tie them to clubs who often don't have a pot to piss in, and might end up neglecting their part of the bargain, or even end up bleeding them dry.

And given the almost complete lack of actual transfer money between Irish clubs, and the fact that Irish clubs are seldom able to negotiate a decent (if any) sell-on clauses with overseas clubs, I don't think I see a huge opportunity for an academy to make its money back.

I'd like to see how they'd run it as a business.

[DeLorean]

Foot.ie gets a mention here - https://www.the42.ie/niall-quinn-lea...47373-Jan2019/

ONE OF MY favourite League of Ireland urban myths is that a league marketing presentation made to the FAI some years ago was very much inspired by a thread on the online football forum ‘foot.ie’ where members had been bouncing LoI promotion ideas off each other.

[CraftyToePoke]

Foot.ie gets a mention here - https://www.the42.ie/niall-quinn-lea...47373-Jan2019/

Movers, shakers and policy makers on here Del. Known for it, you wouldn't see YBIG getting a nod like that, with their threads full of posts of emojis only.

[Eminence Grise]

That's good going, but it doesn't compete with getting an honourable mention in Termonbarry's Wikipedia page - I swear the Alberts and Hibs had a rivalry to match the league's finest despite never having existed outside BonnieShel's (vivid) imagination!

[Charlie Darwin]

Movers, shakers and policy makers on here Del. Known for it, you wouldn't see YBIG getting a nod like that, with their threads full of posts of emojis only.

They'll always have real fans who actually go to away games though.

[geysir]

They'll always have real fans who actually go to away games though.

Urban myth.

[Kingdom]

We always have it too.....step forward Paul O'Shea

[Paddy Garcia]

This is a truly depressing article

https://www.balls.ie/football/irish-...couting-406281

[liamoo11]

This is a truly depressing article

https://www.balls.ie/football/irish-...couting-406281

Well if mark o toole is really the only scout the fai have in England he is doing a smashing job cause you look at any 15s or 16s squad and we continue to have a constant flow of non Irish born lads come on board.

[tetsujin1979]

not strictly speaking about development of Irish young players, but obviously there are players in the academy and underage sides of the clubs mentioned: https://www.independent.ie/sport/soc...-37896313.html

It was a busy Friday for the scouts of Bundesliga clubs who keep an eye on the rich seam of talent in English development football. They were spotted en masse at Arsenal and Chelsea under 18s game at noon in Hertfordshire, and then later at Aldershot Town, where Chelsea under 23s played their Manchester City counterparts at 7.0pm.

[tetsujin1979]

Stephen Bradley on youth development in Ireland, and what he noticed in the UEFA Under 17 Championship: https://www.offtheball.com/sport/ste...ootball-862782

[gastric]

Whether or not it's just pie in the sky, I love that new and ambitious ideas are being spoken about. Can only help with publicizing the League of Ireland.

https://www.independent.ie/au/sport/...-38239650.html

[tetsujin1979]

Interesting article, from the writer of the Sports Gene, on how a wide variety of experience leads to greater success in a specialised field: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...-is-bad-for-us

When I began to write about these studies a few years ago, I was met with thoughtful criticism, but also denial. Maybe in some other sport, fans would often say, but that’s not true of our sport. The community of the world’s most popular sport, football, was the loudest. And then, as if on cue, in late 2014 a team of German scientists published a study showing that members of their national team, which had just won the World Cup, were typically late specialisers who didn’t play more organised soccer than amateur-league players until age 22 or later. They spent more of their childhood and adolescence playing non-organised football and other sports. Another football study published two years later matched players for skill at age 11 and tracked them for two years. Those who participated in more sports and non-organised football, “but not more organised soccer practice/training”, improved more by age 13. Findings like these have been echoed in a huge array of sports, from hockey to volleyball.

[tetsujin1979]

Laura Finnegan, sport lecturer in WIT, and currently pursuing a PhD in Panter development interviewed on the42: https://www.the42.ie/laura-finnegan-...25630-Jul2019/

[The Fly]

Laura Finnegan, sport lecturer in WIT, and currently pursuing a PhD in Panter development interviewed on the42: https://www.the42.ie/laura-finnegan-...25630-Jul2019/

Cheers.

And breathe...

[tetsujin1979]

behind the scenes look at preparation for an underage game

[tetsujin1979]

How parents can nurture child’s football dream closer to home: https://www.irishexaminer.com/breaki...me-966799.html
There's a conference for parents of kids who want to play football in DCU in two weeks: https://irishfootballparentsconference.com/

[tetsujin1979]

Coerver coaching are making their coaching drills available for free during the current healthcare crisis: https://coerverew.typeform.com/to/y6Zu8K