Torquay United Fans Forum

"Academies" is an overused word in youth football.

There are only a handful of true academies as it is, the nearest to Devon being Bristol City's....even Tiverton Town have an "Academy"

Most fans are not aware that the majority of Academies, Torquay United included, charge the parents of the boys a monthly fee. They also charge them for their smart kit.

I am afraid it is a commercial operation and always has been, with, I suppose, the added possibility that a club "may" just get a player who has been missed by the big clubs....but that is a long shot.

I believe the whole youth football set up across the UK needs a close look at, from the size of pitch to the number of matches played a week, and more importantly how commercial companies, loosely tied in to football league clubs, are allowed to exploit the parents of hopeful youngsters.

Twas always thus with the Premier Lge. They're out to maximise their income and sod the rest of the league. Its almost a shame the FA didnt call their bluff when the "big 6" (or however many it was), were on about a euro super lge and kicked them out....

yellowsmiffy wrote:I genuinely can't stand the premier league. Football has been going downhill for years.... i'd do anything to watch the bubble burst and watch some big clubs go the way Leeds did. That youth idea is pure garbage. If the premier league are that intent on getting quality young players in - just allocate a sh*t load of money to the football league for youth development.

And make the Premier clubs pay a fair price for those young players. This idea that they want to scrap up-front transfer fees and include more add-ons instead is also ridiculous. They could get a player, who gets injured or just doesn't break into the first team so they release him to go on a free and the lower league club that developed him gets nothing.

Four years old?! Clubs are really allowed to take on kids that young?
I wouldn't let a football club anywhere near my boy at that age, up until 10 or 11 they should be playing purely for fun, let kids be kids, they're not a product to be exploited by the Premier League. Sometimes I wonder why parents would sign their children up for these academies so young. Maybe to fulfil Daddy's unrealised childhood dream and set the family up for life.
The Premier League want to rip kids away from their parents, take away their chance at a childhood, then spit them out when they don't meet their requirements leaving the rest of the Football League to fight for scraps.
What happens when these kids don't get taken on by anyone? They've been trained to be footballers, presumably with the egos that go with it, will they be taught a skill at these schools as a back up? Probably not.
It's wrong to do this to children just so the big clubs can produce the next Beckham or Rooney. And for each new 'star' how many kids are going to be cruelly rejected after having spent up to twelve years of their lives in these academies?
Apart from what it does to children it's just another case of the Premier League saying to the 'little' clubs "we're bigger than you, we're richer than you, you'll do as you're told, get what you're given and be f***ing grateful".

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 66,00.html

Is this the beginning of the end for youth academies across the smaller clubs in England?

It seems to me another kick in the teeth for grass roots football and the ignorance of the big clubs to clubs such us ours never fails to astound me.