A race to the bottom: The recruitment of pre-academy children into Premier League football academies

By Gerald Griggs, Richard Elliott, Noel Dempsey, Neil Scott

Abstract

The advent of the Premier League has seen considerable investment into football within England. TV money and transfer fees continue to rise exponentially, and top clubs have become multibillion-pound businesses. Many clubs run teams from aged eight upwards, comprising an Academy, in order to develop young players into elite athletes. Clubs will scour the globe in search of top talent, and many parents are keen to get their child into such setups. A significant development in recent years has been the further creation of pre-academies—commercial businesses, sometimes aligned with clubs to identify infant and pre-school children to become professional footballers. In this unregulated space, parents ferry their child from pre-academy to pre-academy, paying large fees in the hope they can get their child on the lowest of the lowest rungs in the belief their offspring will become the next Lionel Messi. This chapter sheds light on this issue and poses considerations to invite future critical discussion on the youth development space in football.