Owen Gunn Football .

Junior Football



Junior football in the UK is of vast importance at many levels. While it helps the community in any number of ways to keep youngsters involved and encouraged, it also produces the best players from every age group that have the potential to play the game professionally. Even if the young player doesn`t make it to that high level, junior football teaches sportsmanship and other valuable life skills along the way.

While the UK as a whole has worked hard to improve the youth system in Great Britain, officials acknowledge that there is plenty of work to be done and efforts to improve are always being made.

For any young player looking to get into junior football, the first step is to find a club in their particular area and the FA itself has its own website in this respect and a quick search will show a list of clubs in your town and the immediate vicinity. From this point you can check individual age groups and other points such as whether there are female teams and whether the club as a whole has been accredited with the FA`s own kitemark.

From here, a player can progress and play right through to senior level if they so desire and those that possess extraordinary talent may leave for a club that is placed higher in the league ladder and a network of scouts would then be alerted.

One of the complaints about the UK system is that too many quality players are allowed to slip through the net whereas the type of system that is applied in Spain is arguably better suited to finding the best talent.

One of the main arguments is that young players are thrown into competitive, 11 a side games from an early age and there are very few opportunities to hone and practise their skills. When you compare this to the Spanish system, youngsters are given more time when it comes to basic drills and there is a leaning towards five a side matches that are better suited to the development of the younger player.

Another serious issue is the state of facilities and most UK pitches are poor surfaces when they are compared to their European counterparts. There are exceptions of course but these are often only made available to the cream of young talent whereas in Spain, better quality surfaces are available to everyone.

Back in 2009, the FA sent a delegation to Spain to study how things were done by the Spanish FA and their clubs as a whole. The Spanish football centre in Madrid was held up as a beacon for the rest of Europe with its top class facilities at all levels and at the end of the trip, the FA declared that the Spanish youth system was the `benchmark` that the rest of Europe should strive to match.

While it`s easy to argue that the best footballers will always make it through the UK system, it`s impossible to tell how much talent is missed. Above all, the game needs to be enjoyable but Britain will do well to look towards adopting more of the Spanish system that will help to produce more of the great players that we see when we watch live football free every week.