SFA, Clubs, Youth Football, And How To Get It All Wrong (2025 edition)
Ross H takes another look at what's going wrong with Youth Football
(I’ve used the image before…. It ages well)
Just when I thought it was safe to say that somehow the SFA and clubs were at least thinking about how to improve youth football, they find whole new ways to make it worse; and please pardon all the language that follows, but my anger level is high…. An absolute rip-roaring fucking arse of things because they are full of useless wage thieves who I wouldn’t trust to tell me what bucket day it was.
Why am I angry…?
Well, we’ve discussed the co-op deal. Pros and cons, and why it was worth seeing how it worked out. However, what no one I know had awareness of – with nothing said by the clubs or the SFA – was that the youth league games were being reduced from 25 down to 16. I, like many, found out when a friend sent me a message saying that the volume of games had been reduced and a link to the SFA website that shows the fixtures for next season, and I counted them and counted them again and then said, 'What the fuck is going on here?'
That’s 9 games, a 36% decrease, 810 minutes of football out the window and a number of minutes that our current Academy players never got close to in terms of first team football for us last season, or the last 2 seasons combined.
Fixtures & Results | Club Academy Scotland | Scottish FA
The response I’ve seen to explain why this was happening was that by moving the U19 games to a Monday (I’m not even going to get started on how this might impact players’ school education), is that would allow young players who are in the first team, or who are on co-op loans the chance to come back and play U19s on the Monday if required; in theory, that means they could get more games. Theory…. We’ll see if that plays out over time. However, that theory only works for the 9 players (12 for some other clubs) who we can send out on co-op; that is, if we actually link with 3 clubs and then send 3 players to each club.
BUT… what about the rest of the young players including the under 17s who will now play on a Friday, many of whom already struggled for game time at clubs with 25 games, many of whom play for clubs like ours who are struggling enough as it is with development and have an awful record for arranging tournaments and friendlies with teams in England and Europe? I’ve seen the difference between clubs in Scotland when it comes to sending players out to test themselves in international tournaments, and ours is woeful. Why… Well, that’s another question for a fan forum because I have no idea, and no one has been able to explain it to me.
Other clubs manage it; I’ve seen numerous examples of Rangers, Hibs and others heading south or abroad to play against the top teams, yet very few of our players are getting those opportunities. I then checked with some players I know who have been in the setup for a few years, and the figure for trips away is 2 or 3 over their entire time with us. Some clubs do more than that in one season.
I then had to check that this wasn’t just me and a few people being caught out by this 16-game season revelation, so I spoke to a few more parents and players at various clubs to see if they knew this was coming into play, and not one person I know knew this was coming. Some are quick to note that we are just past the period where many kids up and down the country have signed pro deals with clubs that can last as long as 3 years. 3 years, and you might be lucky to play 20 competitive games a season, they’d get more games playing for a school team…. That’s not a development plan; it’s a piss-poor joke that the SFA and clubs should have told players and parents was coming into play. Co-op deal or no co-op deal, it is absolute madness in my opinion.
Imagine your kid had turned down a deal to go play for a team down south in a setup that has its house in order to stay here, having been sold on the idea that this is the best place to develop, with game time, a co-op deal and all that jazz. Then you find out by looking at the SFA site that the league games have vastly reduced… More cloak-and-dagger bullshit as per usual. Logic, respect and clear communication seem to be alien concepts within football in this country and I for one am tired of it and have no qualms with calling it out.
It's bad enough that we have a hell of a lot of utterly dreadful coaches in the game, including some awful ones at the international level (Scott Gemmill, anyone know how he’s still got a gig… is it because his football is as grim as Steve Clarkes, answers on a postcard), but when you have decision-makers above them who don’t know their arse from their elbow and only have self-interest/preservation at heart, then it’s doomed, and the clubs are complicit in this. They should be ashamed of themselves if they knew this was coming, and let’s be honest, they had to have known. None of them got a copy of the fixture list for their respective 19s and 17s and looked at them, thinking, 'What the fuck is going on here?' That joy was left to the rest of us. I can’t wait to hear how clubs explain this when players go back for pre-season and ask their coaches, many of whom held meetings with players as the season ended to discuss plans for the upcoming season, none of whom mentioned this.
Sadly, I can’t change this utter stupidity with this rant, but all conversations need to start somewhere, and the silence from the media up here and their inability to see a story that is staring everyone who has dipped a toe into our game in the face… I often wonder why that is.
Now a wee glimpse behind the curtain here. There are people inside Celtic who were lauding the under-16s this season (24/25), rightly so in my opinion. The best U16 team in Scotland, and they proved that by winning the league and cup. A talented group, some really good lads and good players in that age group who could go far if they get the right support and apply themselves, but I was told by a very reliable source that the words used were ‘they are one of the best U16 teams in Europe’, and I laughed, not at the players, but at those within our own club, a club that doesn’t send these lads out to play vs the best teams in Europe, who have people who have the audacity to utter those words. It’s comical, and what makes it all the more annoying is these people are in a position to voice opinions on how to improve our setup and push ideas forward to help and support young players… But yet here we are, in some ways it’s a worse position than last season. I hope the lads who go out on co-op are successful, get lots of games, as for the rest who are left playing 17s or 19s (a bit of both if they are lucky), well I just hope your clubs are going to do the right thing and get you out playing in good competitive tournaments, if they don’t, then my advice would be to go find a team who will.
My very direct message to Celtic right now is you better up your game when it comes to dealing with young players; you better start being proactive in getting boys out to tournaments so they can get games and test themselves, especially now you are looking at a 16-game season, and you better learn how to communicate with the parents and guardians of these young men, many of whom will be wondering how on earth you have allowed this to happen without giving fair warning. Maybe take some of those millions we have in the bank and book the lads on some trips to the best tournaments and then a few extra quid to get all the senior figures some lessons in communication.
If those in the current roles can’t bring themselves to speak openly and honestly on something like this, then they need to be removed from post, and we need to find better people because this has been 10+ years of failure from the club in this area, and that’s without me touching on the various debacles that have happened over the past 2 or 3 years from the McManus and O’Dea fiasco, jobs for mates and the culture around bullying, booze and gambling that has been an issue in the Academy, yet appears to go unchallenged and unpunished.
Each time I write about this, I think about the foundations that Tommy Burns wanted us to build upon and his vision for the Academy, and I cannot help but think the senior figures and those who followed him didn’t get the memo, and we’ve totally lost sight of why the Academy is so important and why it should be at the core of the club. In my opinion, the club should be ashamed of our record, not trying to sugarcoat it with some selective numbers that cannot hide the fact that the last player of Champions League level we produced is Kieran Tierney, a player that people still running our academy now had nearly forced out the door before he ever kicked a ball in anger for the 1st team.
Maybe my expectations of our club in these moments are unrealistic, too high or whatever, but I stand by my point of view that as the biggest club in Scotland we should be at the front of any initiative that effects our game, pushing for the betterment of all aspects of Scottish football, if that means calling out nonsense or being honest about the reality of our game then so be it. I want our club to have people who have a passion for our game and who will leave no stone unturned as they look to make our club better and football in this country better.
Is this a big mad rant, yes, it is a big mad rant. I am angry and this is my outlet to express that anger. I’m angry that yet again I know a lot of good players and good people, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and various other members of each players support network… all of whom are working hard to support their son, nephew, grandson or friend in their pursuit of a dream. They listen to clubs and the FA telling them things are designed to help them succeed, yet all it seems to do is put blockers in their way and this is yet another example of that. In my opinion it’s time for change. I’d gut our Academy staff and if I had the power, I’d take a water cannon and rinse out the blazers and anyone with a hint of self interest in the SFA, basically everyone who has their own office. I often end that by saying I know good people in various setups, but I’m now at the point where I’m struggling to say that because often when these topics come up, those good people… Silent. They might say easy for me to say, but the difference is I would say it no matter what seat I was sat in, my office at home or sat looking at Michael Nicholson or the Blazeraty of the SFA >>>
Professional Game Board
Chair: Mike Mulraney (Scottish FA)
Members: Ian Maxwell (Scottish FA), Les Gray (Scottish FA), Andrew Gould (Scottish FA), Neil Doncaster (SPFL), Alan Burrows (SPFL), Graeme Mathie (SPFL), Andrew McKinlay (SPFL), Patrick Stewart (SPFL), Finlay Noble (SHFL), Tom Brown (SLFL) and Fiona McIntyre (SWPL)
I leave you with this because it made me laugh in a day where laughs have been rare:
