FAI elitism risks underage exodus

The Football Association of Ireland this week released their Elite Player Pathway proposal, which outlined a number of steps that would restructure the underage set up in domestic football leagues in Ireland. It comes as Johnathan Hill was recently announced as the association’s latest CEO, coming into effect on November 1st. The 57-year-old England native takes over from Gary Owens, who held the position on an interim basis; the 4th CEO since John Delaney’s fall from grace in September of last year. Released as an internal memo to association members, the proposal identifies some objectives which have caused much consternation amongst interested parties.The association identifies the U13 age as the demographic to begin their elite player pathway, and that 12 years of age is an appropriate time for young talented players to be introduced to regional competitions with expert coaching. The proposal then continues to lay out a “Long-Term Player Development” pathway which includes access to high quality coaching and appropriately challenging training in a player centred environment. These recommendations have been widely welcomed across the board, and prove similar to the frameworks already present in both GAA and Rugby set-ups. However, the latter half of the association’s proposal has been the more contentious element. The proposal recommends that at the age of 13, players should focus on one sport (football) in order to increase their chances of establishing themselves as an elite player. They supplement this by advising that 4 sessions a week should be the maximum training time, 400 minutes in total, as well as one competitive match: five days of footballing activity per week.The recommendation by the association of focusing on a single sport at the age of thirteen has proved quite contentious, and so has the association's defence of the advice. In the proposal, it lists out the disadvantages of playing two sports at Elite level at the age of 12-13. Such disadvantages include pressure from coaches if fixtures clash, little time for socialising with friends and family, increased risk of injury, and little free time for the child to express him/herself in another way. Moreover, the report backs up these assertions with research from Europe that has suggested that playing more football from the age of 12 onwards rather than diluting it with one or more elite level sports leads to the development of higher quality senior players. The crux of the argument against these recommendations by the FAI is that the decision of what sports a child should concentrate on should never be made by the football governing body, especially at such a young age. Towards their later teenage years, it is, of course, appropriate to focus on one code that they may be more talented in or enjoy more, but having this decision made at the age of 12 is an incredibly serious commitment for a child to make at such a tender age of their life. The European research which the FAI mentions is made redundant when you appreciate that Irish sporting culture is a different animal to most of our continental counterparts; just because Italian footballing academies poach their players from primary school doesn’t mean we should.In Ireland, it’s quite common to play more than 2 sports all the way up to 18 years of age, in fact, it’s a lot more common than focusing on a single discipline from a young age. The research is just as strong for those opposing the FAI’s latest proposal, with many practitioners writing on how the combination of more than one skill set makes for a better all-around athlete. Multi-sport involvement should be promoted in Ireland, not shone out. Last year’s report by the GAA’s Talent Academy and Player Development workgroup proves a stark contrast to the FAI’s elitist approach. Michael Dempsey, chair of the committee commented how the vast majority of stakeholders in the GAA see underage teams as mini inter-county teams, which shouldn’t be the case. Dempsey said with that approach being taken it will lead to drop-out and the overemphasis on winning rather than long-term development. The FAI’s recommendations are all the more egregious considering recent studies completed by bodies such as the LGFA which showed that half of girls drop out of team-sport before the age of 14. At such a young age, it would be outlandish to assume that children have decided what they want to focus on for the rest of their sporting career, and if they have, it’s generally the parents who have decided for them. The FAI needs to recognize that in its efforts to create a pipeline of players to represent their country in Nations League 3rd place play-offs, it may be doing more harm than good. The GAA have learned from their experience with the danger of underage elitism in Ireland, maybe their footballing counterparts should follow suit.