Jump to content

U23s & Academy


Skirge

Recommended Posts

Thought this might be the best place for this, as I can't remember where the "UEFA are utter cunts" thread is. I presume there is one somewhere.

 

UEFA have announced the formation of a new competition - the UEFA Youth League:

 

http://www.uefa.com/uefa/footballfirst/footballdevelopment/eliteyouth/news/newsid=1905481.html

 

A new European Under-19 club competition, the UEFA Youth League, will begin in the 2013/14 season to give young players international competition experience at club level.

 

Sounds great. Except, hang on, haven't we already got one of those - the NextGen series?

 

http://m.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/nov/22/nextgen-football-elite-youth-europe?cat=football&type=article

 

Styled as a kind of junior Champions League, it features 24 European under-19 teams selected according to the perceived strength of a club's youth set-up...

 

Right. So isn't the new competition, er, somewhat redundant? Well there's one key difference. "The 32 clubs that qualify for the 2013/14 UEFA Champions League group stage will also be given the opportunity to participate in the UEFA Youth League from next season." In other words, if you're not a CL club already, you can't play. The "perceived strength" of your youth set-up is irrelevant.

 

Where NextGen goes from here may depend on what progress it can make in its second season. At around £5 a ticket, it is an appealingly accessible form of elite football, and timely in its youthful focus. Perhaps more crucially to its own future, it is also another source of revenue, a means of drawing a small early dividend on all that academy outlay.

 

So clubs like Aston Villa or Spurs, having invested "all that academy outlay" in an attempt to break into the highest level by generating their own players, will be excluded. UEFA have seen an opportunity to make some money, and the clubs in the top echelon will have happily gone along, safe in the knowledge that this new competition will be yet another way to strengthen the status quo. The NextGen will die, as many of its participants are the established elite anyway, who will clearly not be able to compete in two competitions. The deal that the NextGen has with Eurosport will be dead in the water. As UEFA make clear in their statement announcing this brave new world:

 

Our objective is only driven by a sporting perspective.

 

My big fat hairy fucking arse, it is.

Link to post
Share on other sites

How does a team get into the next gen series though? i always assumed it was another elitist thing similar to what they are proposing?

 

Yeah, it's absolutely a fair point. It was set up by a couple of English guys - one of whom was (is?) the director of Watford's academy - and was by invitation, supposedly on the basis of the strength of the youth set-up at each club. I don't know what criteria they actually used - if any - and suspect that they just asked everyone with a decent set-up. Those that were interested took part. It's more that it was a great idea that UEFA are going to just co-opt for their own ends. I was hoping that the NextGen would continue to grow, but no chance.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest palnese

Why the hell has he never come close to playing for our first team? :lol:

 

Remember him being on the bench a few times at the age of 16/17.

Link to post
Share on other sites

U21s including Curtis Good got dicked 5-1 by Southampton.

 

I saw Southampton when they played us up here and they were very good and beat us and we had a much stronger side out than tonight.  Southampton are one of the clubs that have always had a good academy/youth system and bring through decent players.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...