The Irish FA Foundation is set to engage with coaches across Northern Ireland to provide insights into the Irish FA’s new Youth Football Framework.
The foundation’s Game Development team is developing workshops to explain the ‘why’ of the framework, which aims to maximise enjoyment and technical development for every child and young person here.
It is built around four key pillars - Game, Education, Environment and Governance - and an online workshop for coaches will be launched shortly to explain the pillars and to provide coaches with a better understanding of how the youth game will evolve in the coming years.
There will also be in-person workshops for coaches working at age groups that will deliver 3v3 and 5v5 formats in line with the first phase of implementations within the framework; these implementations are due to be rolled out next season.
At the workshops coaches involved in these formats will learn about the new rules, the format of football festivals and ways to link training to matchdays in order to maximise enjoyment and technical development.
Training and support will also soon be made available to club and schools champions of the framework.
The champions are passionate members of a football club or school teachers with a child-centred vision of youth football in line with the Youth Football Framework - and they will lead on embedding the recommendations of the framework within clubs and schools.
Expressions of interest to become a champion are now closed - there was a healthy uptake - and the foundation’s Game Development Officers will liaise with the new champions prior to a rollout of training and support starting next month.
The Youth Football Framework, which was launched in December, has been created following an extensive review by the Irish Football Association into youth football provision across the country.
It covers all elements of youth football, from coaches and parents, the performance and everyday game, to the environment in which the game is played, including pitches, equipment and nets.
Measurement of the Youth Football Framework’s impact on young players, coaches and the wider football community will be ongoing, and the Irish FA is committed to refining and evolving it.
You can view the framework at https://youthfootball.irishfa.com/
