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The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) conducted its 2nd AFC Elite Youth Special Online Session yesterday to highlight the role played by Member Associations (MAs) in youth development in their regions, while also discussing the ways in which the AFC Elite Youth Scheme can assist the MAs in creating National Youth Programmes.
The session, which was conducted by the AFC Technical Director, Andy Roxburgh and the Head of Youth Development, Laszlo Szalai, saw over a hundred technical directors, youth national coaches, heads of youth academies, and academy directors coming together to share ideas on how to help talented youth footballers in their crucial phase as they aim to transition into the senior teams of their respective nations.
An in-depth session was held where the participants learnt about some quality features that can help MAs stand out for others to emulate. The ideas shared ranged from ensuring the presence of competent leaders in the youth development system, to enabling youth footballers, both young men and women, to compete against their peers in top quality domestic as well as international tournaments.
The seminar also touched upon the importance of other factors such as hiring scouts who possess the aptitude of identifying talent, professionals who can monitor matches and analyse performances, establishing academies and centres of excellence for high quality training, and putting in place a well-equipped medical support system.
“Elite youth football falls in the delicate yet significant spot as players transition from grassroots to the senior teams. This is the time for them to engage in regular training in high performance centres,” said Szalai.
The participants also received an update regarding the endorsement status of MAs under the AFC Elite Youth Scheme, where four MAs currently boast of a 3-star status while there are five MAs endorsed as 2-star and another 10 with a 1-star status. Additionally, one MA, Mongolia, currently holds a provisional endorsement under the Scheme.
Roxburgh said: “A sound youth development programme forms the third pillar, along with a strong grassroots system and coach education programme, that hold together the structure of a nation’s player development system.
“By becoming a part of the AFC Elite Youth scheme, you earn recognition on a continental level, and receive a number of benefits which include the use of AFC’s logo, an increased status and technical support from AFC’s panel of youth specialists.”
The attendees also got the opportunity to hear and learn from Kageyama Masanaga, the Youth Development Director of the Japan Football Association (JFA) who spoke on the MA’s Youth Development programme which demonstrated how integral youth development is to the JFA’s mission of becoming world champions by 2050.
Following JFA’s presentation, the session delved into an engaging Q&A session where the participants discussed and reviewed their takeaways and learnings from the workshop.
