Working towards a Sustainable Player Development Ecosystem
An U19s Development Programme Update
The last 12 months has been an exciting time for England Futsal, notably on the national teams front for both our Lions and Lionesses. Firstly, we managed to establish the first ever Women’s National Team that competed admirably at the FIFA 2025 World Cup Qualifiers last October, which was followed by the return of the Men’s National Team after almost 5 years, who are currently participating in the UEFA 2026 European Championship Qualifiers.
Our longer-term vision is to establish a player development ecosystem that increases opportunity, widening and deepening the talent pool to support the national teams for years to come. A first step towards that ecosystem is the creation of our U19s Development Programme. This programme is in its infancy and is an environment that we are evolving to support the development of high potential players aged 16-19 years old. The programme is a two-year cycle that aims to expose players to a number of different experiences in line with our Pride DNA; Technical Excellence, Game Understanding, Physical Dominance & Emotional Intelligence. The Pride DNA is our reference point for player identification, development and selection, a philosophy to support the development of the future England player, something we will be communicating more on during 2025.
However, to raise awareness and understanding around the current U19s Development Programme, outlining what it is and importantly what it is not, please find below a series of insights.
- The primary focus of our U19s Development Programme is individual development followed by individual and collective performance. Our aim is to develop the person as much as it is the futsal player. We are starting from humble beginnings but our aspiration is to provide an environment where young people can thrive on and off court. We may have the next senior internationals in this environment and we need to nurture their potential carefully. However, we may also have the next international coach, referee or administrator for our sport and they are equally as important.
- Currently no England Futsal U19s National Teams exist. The name of this programme is Men’s/Women’s U19s Development Programme. This is in keeping with the focus for this environment. However, fast forward to March 2025 and a squad of 12 men will be selected from the Men’ s U19s Development Group to represent England at the UEFA 2025 European Championship Qualifiers. From a women’s perspective there is currently no UEFA competition at u19s level. We hope this will change soon as there is huge potential within this group and beyond.
***England Futsal will continue to explore other competitive opportunities for the women’s development group during 2025 in line with our current financial position and wider programme priorities.***
- The U19s Development Programme follows a two-calendar year cycle in line with UEFA competition and age banding. All current players are born between January 1st 2006 and December 31st 2007. Within the women’s development programme we do have a few exceptions where players born in 2008 are being supported due to no official competition currently and an opportunity to develop high potential players over a longer period of time.
***We use the word potential rather than talented as it highlights to players and coaches each individual is on a unique journey. This is important terminology to help young players remain hungry and avoid undesirable behaviours creeping into their development, such as the notion of thinking ‘I have made it.’***
- There are approximately 24 players within each development group. All players attended a series of observation days in November 2023 and were invited to join the programme early in 2024. Over 100 players across both men and women attended the observations days.
- The Development Programme receives no external funding and operates as a not for profit model with any surplus reinvested back into the evolution of the programme. The major costs for the programme are facility hire and staff costs. In the first year of this current cycle England Futsal covered all costs. In this second year the costs are being covered by player membership fees.
- For this second year of the cycle players are accessing 6 training camp days which equates to 12 on court sessions delivered by UEFA B Futsal Coaches as well as a series of performance analysis classroom-based sessions, bespoke strength and conditioning support and individual players plans to supplement their development in line with the Pride DNA.
- We have over 20 futsal clubs represented across both genders within the Development Programme and we thank the support of all clubs and coaches in working together for the best of interests of these players.
***When promoting the achievements of players we kindly ask that this programme is referred to as the England Futsal Men’s / Women’s U19s Development Programme.***
- England Futsal National Team Coaches support the delivery of the U19s Development Programme to help align the Pride DNA across all our current environments.
There are many steps and much more we need to do to achieve our aspirations of building a mature and sustainable player development ecosystem that unleashes the player potential across England. However, we hope this update helps to raise greater awareness regarding the current U19s Development Programme. We will endeavour to provide a further update later in the year that outlines our future intentions for the evolution of the Development Programme beyond this cycle.
Additional Coach Resource
Please find a link below to a player development review from the last u19s cycle written by Head of Development and Technical, Sion Kitson. This review was conducted following the conclusion of the Men’s UEFA 2023 u19s Championships qualifying campaign where Sion highlights several areas of our emerging Pride DNA for coaches to consider in relation to the development of high potential young players within the environments they are responsible for. This is a useful read if you are currently a coach working with a similar age group but it is also relevant to coaches working with aspiring players across all ages.
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