What is the Centre of Excellence?
The programme is part of the FA Talent Identification system, which is in place to help develop the disability game for it’s most talented players and to potentially find the next generation of England players. A Centre of Excellence is the only recognised pathway for a disabled player to be identified to play for England National squads.
The Centre is now one of 3 within the South West and all players will receive weekly coaching and monthly playing programmes against other Centre of Excellence programmes. This means every player in the centre will train and play with players of the same standard, or higher, meaning that they will be challenged and developed to help them reach their potential.
Who is the centre for and who is eligible?
The Centre of Excellence is a pan disability programme and therefore the disabilities eligible for the centre are; Learning Disabilities (IQ of 75 or under); Cerebral Palsy; Visual Impairment; Hearing Impairment, Deaf, Amputee (lower limb). Although for training and fixture purposes all players will be playing together, for monitoring purposes, players will be supported within their own impairment group, as the National Squads are impairment specific squads, and if a player is successful in playing for one of the youth or adult National sides, they will be playing impairment specific football.
Although the centre is predominantly for male players, the centre will allow female players to be part of the programme and attend training sessions, however due to FA ruling, female and male players cannot play mixed football, therefore female players cannot take part in the centre matches.
The Centre will exist for U14 & U18 players and each group will have two coaches working with the players on a weekly basis. As within Disability football, players can play within a four year age banding, i.e. for U14s this can consist of players aged 10 – 13/14, and for U18s, players aged 14 – 17/18. Goalkeeping coaching will also be available at least once a month and those players identified as Goalkeepers will work with their coaches as well as with their individual age groups.
When does it start?
The training programme will run from October to May with the players taking part in a 20 week programme of training and playing opportunities. The coaching sessions will run once a week on a Friday evening on the Astro-turf training facility at Strode College, Street from 7pm – 8.30pm for both age groups.
The programme of fixtures will start in October and finish in May and players will have approximately 6 - 7 fixtures during the season, as well as possible friendly matches against other FA Centres of Excellence.
Players must attend every training session and be available for fixtures. Overall attendance must be 80% and above for the whole season.
Each of the fixtures in the Centre of Excellence programme will be played on a Sunday, usually kicking off at approximately 11am. Away Fixtures will usually take up the whole morning and into mid afternoon depending on where we travel. The other venues for fixtures will be held in Devon and Gloucestershire.
There are 6 fixture dates across the 20 week programme, and the remaining weekends will be training, rest weekends or possible alternative events.
If players are selected, what does it cost?
The Centre of Excellence receives funding from the FA to allow it to operate which will cover some of the running costs, (which include facility hire, coaches, equipment, transport to all away fixtures, and physio support to all players). However, we will be asking each player involved with the Centre to pay a fee of £50 for the whole season. This fee will include Training Kit (Tracksuit/Training Kit). This fee can be broken into two or four part payments to help spread the cost over the season. This is the only fee which includes all training and playing events. If you look at this over the course of a 20 week season it works out at approx £2.50 per week.
Is there any monitoring of the programme by the FA and of players?
The Centre will receive monitoring visits from the FA to ensure players are receiving a high quality experience – feedback from players and parents is always welcomed from the monitoring team. Players will be asked to complete monitoring forms – this will help coaches, players and parents monitor the physical activity levels and record any injuries & monitor rehabilitation. In addition to this each player and their parents will receive a 1 to 1 discussion/action plan to enable everyone to keep ‘the player and their needs’ at the centre of our focus during the programme.
What medical support is available to the players?
Each player will receive an initial medical assessment with the Centre physio. In addition to this the Physio will be available on a regular basis to treat and rehabilitate any player’s injury.
Club Football?
Those players that accept their place on selection into the Centre of Excellence are still eligible to register or play for a Youth or Adult Football Club, however Centre of Excellence fixtures and training sessions must take priority over club football throughout the season.
This is a fantastic programme and we are delighted that we can finally have in place the right player pathway for talented disabled players.
For further information, please contact Rachael Edwards, Disability Football Development Officer on 01458 832359 or via email: DisabilityCoEx@hotmail.co.uk.