SSPS research seminar: Relegating football dreams: A critical exploration of English youth academy football

The School of Social and Political Sciences is pleased to invite you to next SSPS research seminar. The talk will be given by Dr Nick Gibbs, Assistant Professor in Criminology, Northumbria University Newcastle. Please share this information with your students and anyone who might be interested. Thanks.

Title: Relegating football dreams: A critical exploration of English youth academy football

Time and Location: 12noon-1pm, Wednesday 6 November, in DCB1101 (David Chiddick Building). Bookings are not required.

Abstract: The elite football industry has been marred by numerous controversies in recent years. Alongside allegations of financial misconduct, sports washing, and criminal offences committed by players, several influential voices have noted a raft of harms associated with the elite youth academy system, where the next generation of stars are recruited and coached.

This presentation therefore trains a zemiological gaze on the English youth academy football system in a bid to develop the first critical criminological account of how we nurture our future professional footballers. First, the talk will set out our understanding of social harm and how this ought to relate to the embryonic sub-discipline of critical sports criminology. Following this, based on interviews with thirty-five current professional football practitioners, the presentation will critically explore various aspects of the structures, cultures, and actors involved in youth academy football. The presentation will focus on the professionalisation and erosion of childhood, player and family sacrifice, players as the disposable ‘supporting cast’, hoarding and trawling practices by elite clubs, the seductions of professional football, and the process of release.

It will also consider the impact of the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP), a major overhaul in the governance of English youth academy football, and some of the challenges and advantages that increased oversight and structure pose to the youth game. The talk will make the argument that the academy system is a ‘harm-facilitative’ industry, concluding with a roadmap for future criminological research into youth academy football, and a call for critical sports criminology to engage with the millions of children dreaming of making it to the hallowed turf of the professional game.

Story submitted by Xinchuchu Gao
xingao@lincoln.ac.uk