What kind of impression it gives you; “Football without football?”

Well, as a football academy manager, I can tell you that when football is your profession it still keeps you busy during the days of Corona.

Where the hope at first was that maybe we would still finish the season, we can conclude that the season of youth football will be finished for 99,9% in all countries. We have in israel also leagues to finish but that should not be the priority!

The premier league in all countries is what we have to spend our discussion time on. Will the league still consist of we don’t finish the league. For a lot of clubs the Television income is on the line. They need this income to stay alive.

Clubs should think ahead and still make their policy for the coming season. Luckily we have clubs that are the corona crisis not as something that should stop their development but will influence their development and to go over everything with a good look at the details of the development of their main team or the club.

Reading news about football in these times is influenced by the crisis but everywhere we have clubs that approach it from the positive side. They think ahead and say; we are ready when we are allowed  to play football football again and not start to think when they are allowed and will lose valuable time.

As all is difficult in these uncertain period, let’s keep looking for the positive!

At the Maccabi Academy we are ready and our coaches have daily contact with their players. Challenges for younger players, physical plans for the older players, assignments for coaches and management planning for when it all starts again and how we can make up for the time lost in football development.

For football players, football coaches or football management we are looking forward to the moment the ball starts to roll again.

Be safe, stay at home and take care of the persons close to you!

 

Regards,

First team and academies need to connect,

Clubs need to add to their philosophy a clear movement of players from the academy to the first team. When is a player ready? When should he be ready but most important does the club create opportunities for these young talented players that are the future of the club?

At this moment clubs wake up when they have financial problems or relegate to a lower league. The philosophy of the club will only be changed when something bad happens.

Why we don’t think ahead and fore come this kind of problems and make it a structural , but more important, a club philosophy!

Investments done by a club (or club owner) in academies, trust in your academy management and coaches will then have more value for the long term.

Only like this you will have future ahead of you and not an unclear future but something for years to come!

Development compensation is common in most of the European football countries. In all countries it is clear at what age it starts. If clubs start their serious development from the age that compensation start, they could lose a lot of quality development time. Therefore, is it not honest that if you invest early, you should be compensated from the moment you start investing?

What is the best way to start the development compensation?

I think it should start from the moment a player enters a professional academy. The academy should be able to prove their investments. When an academy starts from 7 years old, 9 years or 12 years old with organizing a professional program they should be secured. Every federation has her own rules for allowing to register teams in the club’s structure connected with strict criteria to a team at professional level. Criteria such as stars, levels or any other distinction they could use to reward clubs for their development efforts should be used to set rules for development compensation. These criteria should be related to number of fields, coaches, players and another specialist to evaluate an academy. The clubs can not be rewarded when they have nothing to show; increase not only the budget but also demand investments of these clubs in facilities and coaches. It could even be related to the number of foreign players that a first team maximum could register. THERE SHOULD BE AN ADVANTAGE FOR THE CLUBS THAT DO INVEST FROM AN EARLY AGE!

Experiences 

My personal journey in my coaching and management career brought me to different countries and I had to deal with different circumstances to keep players secured for the club I was working for.

In one of the countries it was at first that you had to pay according UEFA / FIFA ruling, from 12 years old compensation started, then after a few years it changed into a regulation that players could leave but when they signed a professional contract with another you would be compensated for the years he was playing in your academy. In another country it was from the beginning clear that years in a professional academy were counted but that it only would be paid when a player signed a professional contract with your club or that you had to pay another professional club if you scouted a player from them. A third example is that players could move freely from club to club until their 15^thbirthday and that the club would not be compensated for the years he was in academy before that age.

So different thoughts in federations or the influence of local sport laws regarding club decisions to invest in football development.

Club decision

In all example’s clubs tried to sign a professional contract with the player at an earlier age to secure the talent for the club. It is not perfect because at some moments you have to take to early a decision, which you would prefer to take a little later in the players development path.

The best solution is to create a system (preferably universal) that protects clubs from losing players they invested in or to receive a good and fair compensation. However, at some moments you are more or less forced to sign a contract with the player because you want him to be at your club.

All the explanations above related is more related to professional clubs but should also count on amateur level. An amateur club that is organizing a quality academy should also be protected.

Let’s hope agents, intermediaries our lawyers support your development path for the player and not that they try use it and profile themselves and your player at other clubs!

How to coach the coaches, is something that is important when working as an Academy Director or Sport Director. As club management your director has a role of following the philosophy and maintain the direction that has been set by the club, with the intention to strengthen it. The club can also give the Academy Director or Sport Director the opportunity to create a structure and philosophy that is connected with the culture of the club.

The director will then be responsible for coaching the coaches and instruct them and keep them thinking in the same direction as the club. This coaching of the coaches will be done off and on the field.

Before starting to coach the coaches, it needs to be clear within the club that the philosophy is approved and that nobody will interfere in this process that. When the final approval has been given by the owner or president of the club the journey starts. At some moments owners or presidents of clubs don’t understand how much difficulties and problems it can give to make the changes. Personnel complains, coaches complain and when this leads to too much discussions then the club was not ready for these changes. An owner needs to support fully and let the professionals work if he wants progress in the football part of his club.

Steps 

Explaining the new philosophy to your personnel in the club or academy is the first thing that should happen. This together with the new organizational structure that will lead to progress in football development or growth on professional premier league level.

Everybody needs to understand his role within the club philosophy and support.

Football development

Leading in a football club is always the philosophy that will influence the teams play football and the coaches to train the teams to get to the desired level. The football development can be explained by the use of manuals, video, presentations and master classes on and off the field.

Influence and support 

To influence the coaches to use the philosophy correct you need to be on the field as an academy director, or as a sport director influence and regularly meet with your academy director. The coaching of the coaches will have the most effect if they are influenced daily in training or match situations. After that the best influence will happen in individual meetings with the coaches which gives them an opportunity to ask questions and for the academy director to explain and correct them personally.

 

Of course, this is a short description of the process that coaches will enter when they have to start working with a new philosophy. Not all coaches are used to being corrected and that will take time and needs an individual approach.  Every coach will get used to it and coaches hopefully will also start to correct and to assist each other.