Youth clubs are the organizational atoms of our football ecosystem. The same is true across the planet. Some youth clubs are simply recreational, some are both recreational and competitive, and some are simply competitive. There are many misuses of the word ‘Academy’ when we talk about youth football, but some clubs also like to call their system an ‘Academy’. Some call their U-12 and below recreational teams Academy, others – mainly on the other side of the Atlantic – call their premier youth teams an Academy. Personally, I prefer the second since the Academy has something to do with science and education. The Cambridge Dictionary defines Academy as:
“A organization destined has protect And develop A art, science, languageetc., or a school that taught A particular subject Or the trains people for a particular job» Or “THE part of a soccer club that the trains young players who could we day become part from the first team»
The youth football system does not have universal definitions or applications, especially in our football culture. Youth football clubs are different in many ways from their European counterparts.
In 2017, I wrote an article for Soccer America called « Thirteen unique applications» which identifies 13 areas unique to our football landscape. None of these 13 features referred – with the exception of the pay-to-play system – to our youth club football system. It is time to look at our youth club system and compare it with its counterparts in Europe.
Although one of the 13 special features mentioned in the article above is the Pay-to-Play system, it is not the only special feature of our youth football club system.
As I have lived most of my life in Europe, I am familiar with the European youth football system and will only talk about the European youth football club system. In Europe, youth football clubs are mostly community clubs. These are clubs from a village or a small district of a city. The exceptions are professional club youth systems which are city-wide, national and even, in some cases, global. The relationship between the community and the club is very strong.
These clubs are not paying clubs. The city and/or national government builds grassroots soccer facilities with taxpayer money. Clubs use these grounds to train and play without paying a cent. In some countries the clubs pay the referees and in others the federation pays the referees’ fees during league matches. The community, through various methods such as fundraising activities or sponsorship of local small businesses, pays the remainder of the youth club’s expenses.
All youth clubs are amateur clubs, usually having one team in each age group for both sexes. All clubs have an A team (adult team) playing in local leagues. Most coaches are volunteers, and in most countries they are required to hold a basic coaching license. Therefore, the expenses of an amateur club in Europe are much lower than those of a youth football club in our country. There are no multiple teams in each age group, there are no team travels/tournaments, no pitch rental fees, no well-paid coaches, no real training fees. organization, no “real” insurance….
So, in essence, amateur clubs are true amateur clubs working on a shoestring budget. Since parents don’t pay for their children to play football, they don’t feel entitled to it.
There are clubs in Europe that ask parents to pay for their children to play. These are generally large professional clubs that market their brand through paid “football schools”. You can see them all over the world, including our football landscape. So far, I have never heard of players playing in these “football schools” joining the club’s academy, but there may be some exceptions. This is a big business that doesn’t focus on player or talent development, even if they claim to.
Amateur football clubs in Europe are also non-profit organizations, like those in our football landscape. They are also managed by boards of directors, as in this country. Their governance structures are therefore similar at first glance. The major difference is that those in Europe are community clubs with a small spending budget to manage. Whereas most of our youth football clubs have to deal with at least hundreds of players – who are consumers – and hundreds of parents – who are customers. Youth sport in this country is worth “In the United States, a $19.2 billion market means the youth sports market rivals the NFL’s $15 billion market..” The amount shown above in 2019 is for all sports, but it is realistic to assume that the youth soccer market is around $5-6 billion. So any youth soccer club of a reasonable size operates a small business under the banner of the 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization. Unfortunately, most school boards in our country do not realize this fact. In the United States, some clubs are privately owned, but they are very few and fall somewhere in the middle.
The board structures of youth football clubs in our country differ from those in Europe. Since European amateur clubs are very community oriented and some of them have been around for several decades, there is a tradition of running these clubs. Boards of directors are generally elected at AGMs (Annual General Meetings) and are sometimes bitterly contested. Most of the board members are former players of the club and well-known figures in the community. They care deeply about their club and have a very strong sense of belonging.
In contrast, the board of directors of our non-profit clubs is primarily made up of parents whose children play for the club. Their mandate is generally limited to that of their children. As soon as their children stop playing football, their sense of belonging to the club ends. Their role is therefore very transitory. This transitional nature of boards of directors has a negative impact on the sustainability of club governance. Transitional board members are more likely to be transactional rather than transformational. For most board members, the future of the club is less important than that of their children.
Whatever their children’s reason for playing soccer – whether it’s to socialize, improve their character, get a college scholarship, or play for the national team – only a well-run club can achieve these goals. Clubs should focus as much on player development as on developing their own club and planning for the future. A board that plans its own governance structure over the years can also plan for the club’s future. Only boards with sustainable structures can be transformational. Without planning for the future, you can’t truly serve your children or the club. These boards will be transactional and short-sighted. The “Curse of short-sighted thinking” will be inscribed on the epitaphs of these clubs.
This article was intended to identify a problem in the governance structure of our youth football clubs and not to propose solutions which could be the subject of another article. In order to make changes to a system, you must first diagnose the problem.
Ahmet Guvener ([email protected]) is the former general secretary and technical director of the Turkish Football Federation. He was also responsible for refereeing for the Turkish Federation. He has been a member of the FIFA Referee Instructors Panel and the UEFA Referees Convention. He now lives and works in Georgetown, Texas. He is one of the partners of The Game Planners.
