Match Days
Getting to Matches
Matches usually take place on Sundays in the early years at 11am with an arrival time of an hour before to allow for changing and warm up preparations.
Away games can sometimes be more than 2 hours from your home. The club will lay on a coach/mini bus for players. Cat 1 and 2 clubs often provide full size coaches for the journey.
Families local to the club make good use of this facility. In our experience, we have made little use of the provided transport because we had to journey an hour in the opposite direction.
Expect to lose many of your Sunday's, on the motorway and through spectating from the side lines. If you leave at 7.30 am in the morning, you might not be back home until 15.30, especially if you stop off at motorway services for afternoon lunch.
We budget for an additional 30 minutes of journey time prior to matches to allow for comfort breaks and traffic jams. You don't want to be rushing to the match. Rushing tends to create stress in the car and if you repeatedly create stress every time you journey to a match or training, you create an unpleasant experience which could turn your child off academy football.
Many of the Cat 1 and 2 clubs have stringent security policies. You will only gain access to the ground if you have already followed instructions from your academy manager to submit your name and car registration to the away team via an online application. Failure to do so could mean you won't be able to access the ground.
A Light Hearted Prematch Player Talk in the Car
This isn't a coaching session but it can be useful to remind your child about the coach's feedback and current development points. Your 15 year old probably doesn't need reminding but players below the age of 13 could well benefit from a gentle chat but do so in a positive manner. Above all, wish them well and encourage them to enjoy the match.
Never under estimate the team's coach. They spot the tiniest of issues. Coaches will pick up on players who are taking the game too seriously at a young age. In these early years, having fun is a core requisite of being a footballer, as is dealing with disappointment, and when they are not playing so well. They should try to have more good matches than bad ones but always leave the pitch and ground with a smile on their face.
Matches
These will not be what you have come to expect in grassroots football. It's a fundamentally different experience. In the younger age groups, you may not see a referee on the pitch, let alone lines people.
Matches can be part of a routine fixture list, cup matches and football festivals where more than two teams take part. For lower leagues these take place in the UK but some Cat 1 teams may participate in European matches too.
Offside, minor handball and fouls are left unpenalised and the game waved on. A player frequently ploughing in with late tackles is likely to be substituted for player safety reasons.
Matches will be played in quarters, not halves.
Premiership clubs are blessed with facilities with multiple pitches of various sizes to accommodate all age groups. Some lower league clubs struggle to provide a pitch for matches in the younger age groups. By pitch, I mean one that is marked out in lines with goals and corner flags.
It's not unusual for your child to be playing on a pitch marked out in cones, where goal keepers and players guess the limits of the penalty box and half way line.
The pitches come in various levels of quality. I saw a pitch in London that featured a mound, 5 meters in length, in the middle of the pitch. At other grounds we saw pitches with construction waste and a huge construction framework parked at the side of the pitch that has remained there for several seasons. Most pitches are of a good standard with some of the Premiership Clubs offering carpet like playing surfaces that are amazing.
It's always a good idea to take boots that are suitable for 3/4G surfaces as well as grass. In the south and south east moulded boots were perfectly suitable for most pitches. Only about 2 or 3 matches per year warranted metal studs when the ground was wet, soft and heavy. Wetter local climates may need a different approach.
Parent Facilities
Clubs in categories 1,2 and 3 have to provide places for parents to congregate and watch matches out of the wind and rain and, provide a place from where you can buy a beverage or snack.
Some clubs leverage the use of university facilities, schools and the armed forces to achieve this. Some are very nice indeed. Others are pretty run down. The money in lower league football only stretches so far!
Parent Behaviour
Parent behaviour in academy football is significantly better on the sidelines than grassroots football. No parent shouts abuse or swears at the referee or players, There are quiet chats about decisions and player performance but you definitely won't hear shouts of, "take his 'effing' legs out." There is too much at stake to lose.
Parents tend to stand in groups behind 'respect lines' whilst spectating and do intermingle with parents from the other side. Rivalry behaviour that exists on the terraces is not visible or tolerated at academy matches.
Grounds are typically non-smoking and non-vaping so you will need to exit the ground to do that. Dogs, unless they are trained guide/support dogs, are not permitted either.
Siblings are welcome as are other family members but just bear in mind there is nothing for younger children to do for the three hours you are on site. So you may need to take something to amuse them.
Three hours is a long time to be outside in the winter, so always take an oversupply of warm clothing and folding chairs if you prefer not to stand. There tends to be just a handful of weeks when the sun is strong, so hats and suncream are a must have for you and your children at that time.
This is something to think about because over the career of a footballer they are exposed to the sun regularly and for long periods of time. Vinnie Jones, ex Wimbledon FC, is the latest player to undergo a surgical procedure to remove a tumour from his skin. Preventative action now is reccomended.
Match Time
You will need to get your head around journeying for 1 to 2 hours to a match to watch your child play for as little as 40 minutes. There will be times when your child plays 60 or 80 minutes but that is not guaranteed and should not be expected as the norm. Nor should you read 60 minute gametime as your child being more talented than others.
Players
We all like to eye up the opposition team. One of the first things you might notice in academy football is the size variation in players.
Academies do mix age groups. Sometimes to give better players a higher level of challenge and development by playing them up a year. Sometimes, they play players down an age group to help with injury recovery or perhaps help with a confidence issue.
Sometimes the size of players can be significantly different with some teams actively selecting larger players as part of their football philosophy, ie that's who they seek out as one strategy to create a winning team but it is not followed by all teams.
Generally speaking, players in the major cities tend to be larger. Clubs have a greater pool from which to find their players. So the likelihood of a taller child being in a team is proportionally higher.
Children develop and grow at different rates with some 12 year olds very grown up for their age and showing facial hair and a much bigger physical frame. These players tend to dominate the match at times.
This can cause many parents concerns about the fairness of the match but they should remember it's not necessarily about the winning - it's about the learning taking place on the pitch.
Player Behaviour
Player behaviour, by and large, is excellent. But from about the age of 10 onwards, we found some of the worst aspects of professional player cheating was starting to enter the game.
- Shirt pulling from the player that has just been beaten and has no response
- Swearing at other players to win psychological battles and arguing with the referee
- Deliberate late tackles to stop an attack
The propensity for this to happen is higher the closer you get to city teams. Sorry, but it's true in my experience.
We found the regional teams have a stronger sense of fair play. To balance this out, the city teams are by far the most talented and competitive teams.
We can't comment on other parts of the country as we have not played in those areas.
Post Match
At our first briefing we were told our children should bring towels for a post match shower. In the first five years, I can't recall showers ever being used. Clubs are reluctant to create awkward situations for staff, especially in the context of the sexual abuse court cases and convictions. But the option remains in place to be used. Players may be asked to shower in their pants, so pack a spare pair!
After the match, it's great to relive all the positive moments of the match with your child and to take the opportunity to praise them.
Avoid the 'what they got wrong' lecture. Nobody wants a weekly Alan Hanson style "shocking performance" monologue. It would be enough to put kids off football for life.
Your child gets plenty of official football feedback every six weeks in Personal Development Reviews (PDRs).
We get one at work every year or quarterly at best and we know what that feels like, so spare a thought for your child. It's your job to be their protector and comforter. Your job is to make them feel good when times are tough.
First Aid
Children will pick up injuries but the coaching staff should be qualified to administer good standards of first aid. Physios from either club can come onto the pitch to take care of an injured child. It's not unusual to see spinal boards, Entonox gas and crutches carried to the side of pitches as a matter of routine equipment taken to the matches.
Clubs take head injuries seriously, so expect a thorough medical review and a cautious return to playing which might take several weeks or longer.
