BTID
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Posts posted by BTID
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Potentially the best change to the upper level of youth football in a generation. *If* we all support it and get behind it. Could be a real positive influence for 16-19 year olds in the west.
Looking forward to competing and building a successful league for the next generation in all our communities.
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Could be wrong but I don’t think it’s got anything to do with folding, more just keeping the current west Development teams together. That would explain the Bonnyton situation.
I’d also add teams folding will be down to results and lack of players, rather than travel. Boys clubs used to winning in their grassroots league taking the step up and finding it difficult.
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Have to keep in mind some teams will be older and some much younger as well. Huge leap between potentially 16/17 and the 18/19s
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Think we will be £2/1 but tbc.
How are the squads shaping up and prep going?
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4 hours ago, gaz1959 said:
Dunipace are staying in the East
Gutted, will miss playing our games every single one was a cracker last season! The guys running it are first class as well really good football people.
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2 minutes ago, glensmad said:
It is likely to be next summer before Rutherglen Glencairn possibly enter a team into the Development League.
Our u21s are staying in the SYFA West of Scotland Premier League meantime, while we will also have teams in the SYFA Glasgow and District League at u19s, u16s and u15s.
The circumstances weren't quite right for us to enter a team in the Development League this year for various reasons, however it is certainly a concept we are very interested in. Hopefully a year from now we will be more than ready.Is the Glasgow district running 19s for the first time? Wasn’t one last year. Central had 3 divisions last year but the whole top flight is decimated now sadly. Same as Paisley.
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On 26/05/2020 at 20:40, Scott90 said:
Hi folks,
bit of a long shot but I've just started up a Sunday football side with my mates. (Renfrew Rovers) Was wondering if any teams in the West area have any old kit/strips that they would be willing to part with? Sponsorship at the moment is very difficult to get in place, i understand it's a difficult time for everyone. Any help would be hugely appreciated
Cheers
Scott
Dm us mate we should be able to sort you out.
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11 hours ago, FairWeatherFan said:
Never knew that about Argyll. Mind went to VOLA being so close to Millburn and the habit of using some High Schools.
Arygle has always had grass pitches but got funding to do up an astro about 4/5 years ago it’s in alexandria 2 min drive.
Yeh I work in the school, Millburn is directly beyond the back of the athletics track. Tbf all 3 vale teams 19s 21s and juniors trained there this year so maybe games will be there? Either way match facility availability pretty good plus Millburn is one of the best pitches could be great in the light nights!
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35 minutes ago, FairWeatherFan said:
I know when the Vale of Leven Academy was rebuilt they included an astro. Presumbably Vale of Leven would be considering that. Unless there's something more obvious i'm not aware of.
Vale has just had the astro relaid as well but I’d imagine they’ll play at Argyle Park which has a barrier and new astro
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1 hour ago, Andy groundhopper said:
That seems a positive step ,and good luck to them. Out of interest,are there loads of clubs that run sides from youth right through to senior level ? or is there a gap after a certain age - where the 20's development can fill a gap. Looking forward to a full lge set up for next season, good progression.
Every club is different. As of this season we will now have a fully integrated pathway for the first time from 8-16 then 16-20 takes in the development squad with 3 potential routes senior, sat ams or sun ams.
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33 minutes ago, Billy XBoswell said:
Here is my take on current situation & I stand to be corrected as I have not been involved at Boys Club/Youth level for a few years now:
- All teams up to & including U21's so far are registered to & run under the auspices of SYFA & goes 17s -> 19s -> 21s. Players normally pay weekly/monthly subs & coaches are unpaid
- U20's Development is a separate entity & these players are affiliated to their Senior Teams & signed under amateur status, therefore no payment should be made direct to them ( I could be wrong with this one but is my understanding)
- The only recognised Academies that I am aware of are with SPFL Clubs & these have to meet strict SPFL criteria/standards & awarded accordingly
- The ex Junior clubs that you mention above from Ayrshire, Kilwinning & Auchinleck have not in the past been directly involved with these Boys Clubs, same can be said for Hurlford, Beith, etc. just name only to my knowledge
- The only ones that I am aware of in the past have been Whitletts Vics, Troon, Glenafton & Cumnock plus Bonnyton Thistle (Kilmarnocks other Senior Team) but they were at Tier 6 anyway
As stated previously It will be interesting to see what happens & it appears that the money men are making their moves, I fear for the future of some Boys Clubs now & also U21's League
FYI .... I'm not going to bite back on this post but I hope it does raise some questions & also answers some questions that you may have had
All the best & take care
Billy to answer some of your points (which are legitimate not sure any need for argument):
1. This is correct. I’m not surprised at the level of interest, because as has been discussed on other threads the ‘adult’ level of youth football (16+) is in a desperate need of repair and fresh ideas for years.
2. You are correct in assumption coaches largely unpaid and players pay fees. Ideally the senior club should work together to build a business plan that finances it long term imo but every club will be different. For some new clubs that will take time also.
I think your incorrect though players can be paid and play 20s or senior side. That would depend on their contract agreement.
3. The academy structure at the highest level changed to project brave which was ultimately cutting the majority out and focusing on elite player development at a few.
Which probably explains the mess below it, left behind with little enthusiasm or ideas. That’s why the 20s has gained so much traction I reckon. Minimum standards required and connected to a Senior side adds a level of professionalism away from grassroots.
4. Not really sure what your point is here if you could expand. Surely it’s a good thing in general that boys clubs are now aligning with senior setups. Fragmented grassroots clubs with no pathway at the end doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe some have latched onto a short term opportunity, but hopefully from that we see benefits long term when the structures are in place.
Hope this helps answer and happy to debate!
ps can assure you that money isn’t the motivating factor here. It requires a hell of a lot of work to run any team at this level. Hence why so many spfl clubs scrapped their academies. I think there is genuine optimism at something positive, new and with like minded people on board.1 -
1 hour ago, Andy groundhopper said:
Ha yeah the Out of town O.F fans, shame some of those aren't playing or supporting locally - bit like the Plymouth branch of Man Utd fans ! As to the youth team arguments on P&B, I guess there are genuine reasons why clubs do or don't have a youth policy - finance,lack of help, etc etc. Be nice if everyone had a reserve/youth side, just hope there are enough players interested - the usual distractions as kids get older may decide that.
Very true, maybe for short term gain but clubs like Dumbarton and Falkirk scrapped their full youth setup for financial reasons. Will let others be judge as to whether that was a good idea.
Regards to OF fans, like anywhere else in the world, biggest teams will have biggest fan bases across a country. So happens we have 2 considerably bigger than everyone else.
Up to clubs to work hard and to win hearts and minds into coming along on a Saturday.
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3 hours ago, Bestsinceslicebread said:
I think it was wrong the way I posted it.
Any team can start a development squad if they have too, just take a local u19s team and make them the development team but its my fault I'm not meaning that way or other ways, what I meant by the post is that Dalry is a sparsely populated area and its hard to get a constant supply of youths for an academy structure and again I can be wrong.
All I mean is Pollok with over 80 teams, Rossvale with over 70 teams and Clydebank over 30 teams in their academy can quite easily have a development team ready to take the reigns. so its harder for Dalry, Lugar, Kello Rovers etc.. due to area populated.
Personally Id love every frigging team to supply a development team but that's just wishful thinking on my parkNot a big deal but we’re a smaller academy no where near 30 teams. This year we have U10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20s and 2 ams teams sat and sun. Still great progress from nothing around 5 years ago. And probably a model that suits us at the moment - keeping it manageable and not growing too quick.
Great to have another quality team on board, thats 4 from the central premier u19s now.
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Shettleston now saying they are running a 20s
14 hours ago, glensmad said:14 hours ago, BTID said:Always going to be a tricky one to manage a 21s and 20s I reckon, unless the 21s are disconnected from the first team being a Saturday afternoon.That's what we're looking at just now. We have a long standing relationship with the SYFA West u21s, but we are very interested in the u20s Development League. It's how or when we do it that we need to decide. There's no immediate rush to decide, we have until 15th June if we want to join now, so we're weighing up all the options.
Yes clubs like yourself - the situation is a little more complicated, especially if your 21s roots have a strong history with the wos syfa.
Do you have a squad able to take the step? Are the coaching staff in place? Can you get a fri night let (would the pitch cope?) Probably the 3 immediate questions needed in order to move this summer.
It’s great that we’ve seen so many positive moves from clubs to integrate pathways with community teams. This can only be a good thing.
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46 minutes ago, Mick Kennedy said:
Thank you Billy, we where just saying the other day how we appreciate you take the time to check what’s going on with the club and now Galston Youth.
Just to let you know, we will be entering a team into the under 20s development league. Sorry they won’t be coming from Glasgow area, not sure what the reference is to Glasgow and £££. However hopefully we will have some news out today regarding the new under 20s. If you can’t contain your excitement until then, if you DM me I’m happy to let you know what’s happening. I know how interested you are with whats going on, so don’t mind keeping you in the loop.
With regards to the gap in the pipeline and lack of facilities, this is one of the main reason we decided to create a joint trust. We wanted to ensure that we created opportunities for all kids in the valley and this wasn’t restricted by age. We are also aware that there is a lack of sporting facilities within valley, and if we aim to create and develop opportunities for local kids and their families this needs to be addressed. We will work collaboratively with local and strategic partners, to set out aims and objectives that will allow us to begin to map out this journey and what’s required.
When society begins to return to normality we will set out to engage with the community and relevant stake holders ensuring the process it lead and owned by the community. The trust will be a vehicle to ensure we deliver on their aspirations.
I believe you have close links with Bonnyton Thistle who have a great academy. If you want to give us any advice we are happy to listen.
Take care and stay safe
Great news Mick, if you need any info on the new setup give us a shout we can either speak from experience (application process/phone calls) or pass on to good people we’ve spoken to.
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Always going to be a tricky one to manage a 21s and 20s I reckon, unless the 21s are disconnected from the first team being a Saturday afternoon.
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Don’t think there’s any guarantee of a west league and teams should be aware of that...but given the movement we’ve seen it very much looks like that will happen so no idea where they have got that information from.
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Must be looking at 3 conferences now eh?
Would be great to have a prestigious lowland league cup with everyone involved. Could the highland 20s get involved for a national?
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Well done guys good show
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34 minutes ago, OnTheGround said:
10k per year to run a team in the u20s team is insane my friend.
Not sure how you’ve arrived at that figure. Already stated if running a 19s or 21s we’ll be better off in this structure.
If you don’t have a development team or the 10k then don’t put a team in???
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35 minutes ago, traffordab said:
Shocking but not surprising. What a terrible state our youth game is in awe sadly never see it recovering.
Don’t really see what there is to be shocked about. We’ve fully costed next year. The vast majority of our expenses (probably 3/4) is pitch hire.
The youth game has struggled because there is so little money involved/invested even at the highest level. This backed up with a lack of govt (politics and football) help on pitch costs, coach education etc. So volunteers pick up the pieces.
At least there is a vision with the U20. A sense of purpose and forward thinking with the clubs involved. It’s getting the most committed, hard working and quality coaches together at this level and trying to make it a more professionals and positive environment. From what I seen last year the league is doing good things.
We are very much looking forward to being a part of it. It’s optional, so if the club doesn’t like it, don’t have it.
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Think it might be hard for the ‘sales guys’ to shed light on things that have cropped up without explaining what they are?
In our financial plan it didn’t have any additional costs from what we would have at 19s or 21s, other than the referee fee. I was told this is repaid year 2 by the sfa...but whether that will still be done with additional clubs and the current situation - would plan on it not coming back.
3 conferences would be good with 1 west. I’d have the cups all in so it keeps it interesting playing different teams. Lowland Cup would be cool to replace the SYFA Scottish cup to have a bit of prestige to the setup. But we’ll go with whatever the plans are meant to be.
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2 hours ago, FairWeatherFan said:
Isn't the Upper Annandale u20s not a Glasgow based youth side that just used Uppers name as a way to enter the league? If true, couldn't they now look to link up with someone closer to home?
Maybe there isn’t enough players coming through in the area and the strategy is picking up players glasgow and south?
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Anyone I’ve spoken to the best thing about this new setup is it’s moving away from grassroots. There is definitely a market for a more serious, more professional setup away from dads running teams on public parks on a Saturday morning.
Tying in with the wosl team officially creates a closer link with the community that’s associated with the senior side and that can help the 20s grow. Really looking forward to it, many positive conversations with like minded teams past few weeks.
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West Development U20 League / Teams
in West of Scotland Football League
Posted
Thoroughly enjoying the friday night games, everything is so much more organised from the association, the fixture list, the social media, the facilities etc.
We’ve been getting decent crowds between 50-100. Team has started very well, looking forward to seeing them progress to the senior game when many move on next summer.