SFA youth review report 'to be published soon' as Ian Maxwell urges clubs to 'be more strategic'

The chief executive of the SFA has told a Holyrood committee that a review into youth football in Scotland “will be published soon”.

Ian Maxwell has urged clubs to “be more strategic” and used the Portuguese league as an example of how successful it can be if the right system is in place.

The Scottish Football Association chief was giving evidence to the parliament’s sport and well-being committee on Tuesday.

A report published last year showed that Scotland’s top flight trails similar-sized countries in giving game time to young players.

When asked what the governing body was doing to change that and if anything was being put in place to accelerate players development, he said: “We are pushing clubs to be more strategic in developing Scottish players.

“We’ve got a youth review that will be published soon that will talk about a lot of this and it’ll talk about changes we feel we need to make.

“Do we have enough players playing in the Scottish premiership right now? No. Can we do more to get Scottish players playing? Yes.

“How we do that is the million-dollar question, but clubs need to be more strategic.

“When you look at countries like Portugal, where you have clubs like Benfica, Sporting Lisbon, countries that are really successful at developing their own players, they get them into the first team, they sell them abroad for tens of millions of pounds, which is then reinvested back into the Portuguese footballing eco-system.

“How do we get our clubs to start thinking more strategically and go down that road and think about development from that perspective?”

Maxwell also told the committee that the SFA are running programmes aimed at helping to “develop individuals” with the game’s popularity being used as a way to attract young people.

He said: “The player journey is changing and evolving, as football evolves and life evolves. What we are finding now is that, traditionally, there has been a desire to have players at clubs and playing for teams, but what we are seeing now is that players just want to play.

“They want to be involved in a social context, and it is less about the competitive element, so a big focus we have had recently is making sure there are opportunities and pathways for those who don’t think they will be professional footballers, but just enjoy playing with their friends.

“So we have a number of programmes that we run up and down the country for various age groups with football being used as the hook.

“We have an Extra Time programme that give kids breakfast in the morning and a bit of physical activity before school, it gives them after school care and the results we see from that are huge. Attainment is up, attendance is up and the impact it has on the individuals is really significant.

“It’s about looking as football from a wellbeing perspective, obviously we do want to develop good players because that is important and the success of the men’s and women’s national teams is a key driver for a lot that happens across the country.

“But there is just as much focus on developing people and developing individuals to give them tools that they can use for the rest of their lives, not just in a footballing context.”

Last year, the SFA published a report looking at the reasons behind a lack of youth development in the SPFL and the issues it causes clubs throughout the country.

It found that factors such as lack of strategy at boardroom level and a gap between academies and first teams are having a negative effect on the number of players aged between 16 and 21 making an impact, leaving Scotland behind other comparable nations.

Commissioned by the Professional Game Board, the review made recommendations on how to improve the progression of talented players in the key ‘transition’ stage of 16-21.

The findings of the report, overseen by the SFA’s Chief Football Officer Andy Gould, were released in August, 2024.

It was compiled based on a range of existing global player data, comparator case studies and extensive interviews with players, coaches, chief executives, sporting directors and heads of academy across Scottish football.

It was found that Scotland had fewer players playing in European competitions last season than comparable sized and smaller nations including Albania, Iceland and Montenegro.

The report also said that widely held beliefs that the size of the leagues, lack of resources, pressure from fans, and short-lived tenures of managers caused the issues within the transition phase were wrong and that those factors don’t play a significant part.