Scottish FA Publishes Extensive Report on Transition from Academy to First Team Football

The Scottish FA has today published an extensive report that puts player development and progression at the forefront, focusing specifically on on the issues facing players in their transition from academy to senior football. 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The review was commissioned by the Scottish FA’s Professional Game Board (PGB) in late 2023 to examine, quantify and make recommendations to improve the development and progression of talented Scottish players in the key ‘transition’ stage of 16-21.

Overseen by the Scottish FA’s Chief Football Officer, Andy Gould, the report was compiled based on a range of existing global player data, comparator case studies and extensive interviews with players, coaches, Chief Executives, Sporting Directors and Heads of Academy across Scottish football.

The process was carried out by Chris Docherty, the Scottish FA’s new Head of Men’s Elite Strategy. Chris has amassed extensive experience at home and abroad in various aspects of elite development, having worked as Sporting Director at Honved (Hungary) and FC Akron Togliatti (Russia). He also assisted the Sporting Director at HNK Hajduk Split (Croatia) and worked as Head of Tactical Performance at Dundee United.

The report sought to establish trends in successful player development and provide a menu of recommendations. The review involved consulting with all clubs within the SPFL as well as representatives from the Lowland and Highland League. Data and insight has been collected from other key sources such as 21st Group, FIFA, UEFA and the ECA as well as experts throughout Europe.

For the purposes of this project, we have defined the 16-21 period in a player’s journey as the “transition phase”, referring to the transition out of an academy environment and into professional football.

The report considered six main areas set out below. Having presented to the Scottish FA Board, a working party will now be convened comprising members of the Scottish FA’s PGB and the SPFL’s Competitions Working Group to crystalise and implement key recommendations.

Section 1: The Incentive for Change

- This section outlines the incentive for Scottish clubs to pay greater attention to the transition of young players in their 1st team environment.
- The first of these is the performance argument – contrary to the belief held across our game that playing with younger players has a negative correlation with results, this is in fact not the case. On the contrary, the majority of clubs who consistently overachieve their budget both domestically and in European competition do so based on a strategy centred around having a top-level academy and developing their own talent.
- The second of these is the financial argument – while other comparable countries have focused on the model of developing younger talent both because it reduces the cost of 1st team salaries, and because it helps develop a player trading model which is shown to be the biggest opportunity to increase revenues as a club – our clubs still tend to focus more on issues like matchday revenue or TV distribution, which leaves them behind in the global marketplace.

Section 2: The Issue

- This section uses a wide range of data points to show that Scotland lags significantly behind comparable nations in terms of young player minutes at every level of the game.
- As an example of the depth of the issue – Scotland now has less players featuring in European competitions than nations with significantly smaller populations and resource – such as Albania, North Macedonia, Iceland and Montenegro.
- This section also rules out a number of the widely-held beliefs on why Scottish clubs are behind the curve, showing that none of the following explained the issues within the transition phase:

o Experienced Players Achieve Better Results
o The Short-Term Tenure of the Head Coach
o Pressure from Fans
o Size of the Leagues Being Too Competitive
o Size of Talent Pool
o Lack of Resources
o Lack of Infrastructure/Facilities
o Belief that Below Scottish Premiership, a High Number of Young Player Minutes Existed

- Therefore, the issues within the transition phase can be narrowed down to the following key factors:

o Gap Between Academy and 1st Team
o Lack of Strategy at Board Level
o Issues in Youth Development Phase

Section 3: Trends in Success

- This section outlines a number of trends and patterns which can be observed when analysing both the individual players who go on to achieve an elite career, and clubs who consistently transition players through to 1st team level.

- This provides a platform for helping clubs to understand how to improve their processes should they wish to capitalise on the incentives mentioned in Section 1.
- A key and critical factor in this is that early exposure to senior football – most specifically in the 16-18 age range – seems to be a key pattern in those players who go on to achieve an elite level career.
- Notably, this experience does not have to be in a top division and does not necessarily have to be a “successful” loan in terms of regular playing time.
- However, it highlights the need to move players in the 16-18 age range from age-category football and into senior football as early as possible.
- In terms of clubs who successfully transition young players to their 1st team on a regular basis – having a strategic approach led by a director with experience in the player development process who outlines a detailed football philosophy and DNA which links the academy and 1st team, and investing in high quality, full-time staff within the academy, were found to be the two biggest trends.

Section 4 & 5: Consultation Phase & Menu of Options for Change

- For this section, we engaged with stakeholders at various levels of the game and across all 42 clubs.
- Within Section 4, we outline every reason that was mentioned more than twice in our
consultations with clubs as a reason why they believed Scottish football was behind other
comparable nations in the transition phase.
- We have then listed a range of possible solutions which can be considered to address each of the issues mentioned by our stakeholder clubs.
- The most frequently mentioned issues during our consultations with clubs were the gap between playing U18s Club Academy Scotland (CAS) football and 1st team senior football, the lack of strategic approach throughout the game, and issues which are linked to the youth development phase which directly precedes the 16-21 age group.
- Within this section of the report we have listed the package of measures which are either 1) leading to immediate action, or 2) are being proposed for consideration in the near future. These are summarised in the recommedations at the foot of the page.

Section 6: Implications for Girls & Women’s Football

- While this report has focused mainly on the transition phase within the men’s game, through our consultations with stakeholders in women’s football we highlight the importance of considering this phase as part of the ongoing strategy in Girls and Women’s Football.

Key Recommendations

The full report can be read here.