David Sneyd

LEAGUE OF IRELAND academy development manager Will Clarke says the jobs that have started to be created in club academies will be the most important in Irish football for the next 10 years.

Almost 12 months on from the government committing €3 million to the initial three-year cycle of academy development, Clarke detailed some of the milestones and struggles faced in what he believes is the start of a culture change within the game in this country.

The academy chief feels this shift in thinking towards player development is a necessity, citing how too many late developers in the mould of former and current Republic of Ireland internationals like Wes Hoolahan and Jack Moylan have been missed out on.

A new player development system that will track data and connect all clubs is to be implemented by Dublin-based company Kitman Labs that already work within the Premier League, Major League Soccer and NFL. Clarke believes their expertise will be vital to help initiate a shift in how talent identification operates.

“It will give us the data points we need now to make better decisions around player development because at the moment the academy system definitely has a bias in it towards the early physical maturer,” the academy chief said at a media briefing on Tuesday.

“It means we’re overlooking huge amounts of talent because we don’t have the information to make more informed decisions on players and their potential. There have probably been dozens of those players that we’ve overlooked over time. We don’t know.

“Having the data will allow us to make better decisions around players. Some kids need a little bit of time. We’re having to make a judgement call on players way too young or far too soon and because the culture in Ireland is about this… now it is changing slightly but probably not quickly enough, we’re still overly focused on the success of a team as opposed to the development of an individual,” Clarke said.

“That’s what we need to move away form. That takes time, that’s a cultural thing that we’ve all grown up with, myself included, it’s definitely an education thing and culture thing. We’re trying to change all that.”

There have been 47 new full-time roles relating to academy football created due to government funding. Currently, 63% of those have been filled and Clarke expects that to rise to 90% by the end of the year.

However, he revealed that despite the FAI reaching out to over 200 former female players and pinpointing those with the required Uefa coaching licences, only seven applied to their respective panels, three were successful in an interview place, and just two were appointed by clubs.

A recruitment panel within the FAI was established to whittle down suitable applicants for League of Ireland clubs to interview for the newly-created Academy Director and Head of Academy Coaching positions for all 20 clubs as well as Peamount United and DLR Waves in the Women’s League of Ireland.

“These jobs are important and there are no shortcuts here, so you’ve got to prepare. They are really, really important jobs. These are probably going to be the 50 most important football jobs in this country for the next 10 years,” Clarke said.

“There are no shortcuts, there were no nods and a wink and ‘I know such and such’. If you came in, we said it to everybody, it was up to them in the interview to prepare properly.”

Two additional Academy Support Manager positions have also been created within the League of Ireland office while there will also be full-time staff on secondment from Kitman Labs and MADE, the latter firm securing the tender process for the continued audit of academy development and implementation.

To further stress this point, Clarke explained how an oversight committee has also been established. Former Minister of State for Sport Michael Ring is the independent chairperson, Nora Stapleton is the representative of Sport Ireland, Dr Áine MacNamara is Associate Professor of Elite Performance at Dublin City University, while the FAI’s former head of player development, John Morling, is also on board. A fifth person is also to be appointed.

Clubs receive their funding payments on a quarterly basis with the next amount due at the start of October and Clarke anticipates that next year full-time staff in League of Ireland academies could reach the 70-person mark.

For context, as part of the independent auditing of League of Ireland academies before last year’s budget submission, the Belgian group Double Pass highlighted some sobering benchmarks with countries ranked 51-100 by FIFA.

Only 46% of clubs had a full-time academy director compared to 60% of clubs in Fifa countries ranked 51-100. Only 4% of Irish clubs had a full-time head of coaching compared to 46% among peers, while no League of Ireland club had a minimum of four full-time academy coaches compared to 36% elsewhere.

“It’s not going to change overnight. It will take a bit of time and these will be the first steps to create full-time football industry around academy development and youth development.

“In the long term we’d like to get to a point this is sustainable because that’s what we’ve pitched this to the government as. It’s a long-term investment and there is an onus on everyone working within the system that it does become financially sustainable within time.

“Ministers have been really supportive and advised us to take time and put building blocks in place to make sure this is successful in long term,” Clarke said.

“They’re not looking for short-term wins because I think they realise that if you go chasing short-term wins you’re not really dealing with the fundamental issues. They’ve been really good in that regard to not put us under pressure to come up with short-term wins.”