A career as a professional footballer has long been regarded as a highly sought after occupation for many young males within the UK and, against this backdrop, since the 1970s increasing attention has come to be placed on the way young players are identified and developed within professional clubs. Particular concern has been expressed over the number of players who, having been developed by professional clubs, fail to secure a professional contract, and the ways in which clubs should help young players safeguard their futures through alternative career training. There, have, however, been very few studies that have analyzed the education and welfare provisions that are offered within professional football Academies and Centres of Excellence, and fewer still that have done this from a sociological perspective. By drawing upon the figurational sociology of Norbert Elias, concepts derived from symbolic interactionism, and existing work in the sociology of youth, the objective of this study is to examine the realities of young players' day-to-day working-lives, the experiences they have of the educational programmes they follow, and the welfare-related matters that arise within present-day Academies and CoE. Using data generated by self-completion questionnaires and focus groups with 303 players in 21 Academies and CoE in England and Wales, the findings of the study suggest that players continue to be socialized into a largely anti-academic culture that has traditionally underpinned the world of professional football, and in which the demonstration of a 'good attitude' and commitment to the more central members of players' interdependencies (especially coaches and managers) dominated all other concerns. Indeed, it was also clear that the deep-seated values players held in relation to the professional game as part of their individual and group habituses were shaped by the figurations into which they were born and had been developed during the more impressionable phases of childhood and youth. Players' welfare needs were significantly compromised by the strong degree of suspicion and obvious degree of mistrust that characterized their relationship with club management, which emanated from players' fears that confidential matters would always 'get back' to others inside the club. This was exacerbated, in almost all cases, by players' observations that they were treated as if they were 'bottom of the club' and whose welfare needs were not generally well understood by those working within Academies and CoE.

Abstract The objectives of the study were to examine: (I) if different categories of social support (family, friends and school) can predict well-being among Swedish male football academy players. Moreover, the purpose is to (II) compare if two age groups of male academy players (11-14 years) and (15-19 years) differ in perceived social support (e.g. family, friends and school) and well-being. The participants in the study were 443 male football academy players (M = 14.17) from four different elite clubs. The questionnaire that was used in this study consists of a modified extended-form health survey collected from FHI (Public Health Institute) developed to examine adolescents’ subjective well-being. The survey is based on SDQ (Goodman, 1997), PSP-scale (Hagquist, 2008) (Swedish questionnaire developed to measure psychosomatic issues among children) and Kidscreen (Ravens-Sieberer et. al., 2005). The result showed that different categories of social support (e.g. family, friends and school) could predict 20.4% of the total well-being among Swedish academy players. Additionally, it was found that younger academy players (11-14 years) experience a higher level of well- being and more social support in terms of friends and school in relation to older academy players (15-19 years). The results are discussed in relation to theoretical frameworks and previous research.

The objectives were to study: (1) if psychosocial factors (such as social support from coaches and peers), within a football context, could predict psychological well-being among soccer academy players (2) the relationship between selection and well-being among football academy players and (3) compare the age categories 11-14 and 15-19 in perceived wellbeing, experiences of selection and social support from coaches and peers.  In total, 443 players from four academy settings participated in the study. The player’s ages differences were between 11-19 years. The instrument used was the Swedish health survey developed by the Swedish Health Institute with a number of football specific items added. Result suggests a regression model including two variables (social support from coaches and peers) explaining 16, 6 % of the psychological well-being. Further, a negative relationship was found between selection and perceived well-being. Another finding was that the youth players (11-15 years) experienced higher levels of social support and psychological well-being, but experienced selection more negatively compared to junior players (15-19 years). Recommendations are given to coaches to be aware of developing a supportive coaching style. Another recommendation to increase well-being is to develop support mechanisms to help the youth players in academy settings to cope with the pressure of selection. The results are discussed in relation to theoretical frameworks and previous research.  Keywords: Football academies, psychological well-being, social support and selection / Svenska fotbollsförbundet

Geographical aspects of soccer players' origin - football academies: Comparison of Czechia and Serbia Abstract The goal of this thesis is to identify football academies in Czechia and Serbia since 1993. That accomplishes through presenting theoretical approaches of sport geography, then documents the globalisation of sport and especially the diffusion of football in space and time. It submits also characteristics of the successful football academy and finds out positive economical effects, which are generated by production of professional football players. The thesis researches in analytical part not only regional divide of the football academies, which are identified based on the place of birth, first youth and professional clubs and transfer value of the individual players, but the influence of different factors on success of club in national league as well. Key words: geographical aspects, origin, football academies, transfers, economic profitability Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)