First teams and college dreams - a data-based look at the players from the opening elite underage leagues

There is an open conversation ongoing regarding the status of underage football in the Republic of Ireland and how the new pathway is working to develop players.

How many are progressing through to adult League of Ireland sides? How have the underage leagues impacted on the make-up of the adult divisions? What type of players are being produced?

This article has the answers to some of these questions based on the initial cohort of under-19s and under-17s – approximately 700 players in total.

The results, while only an initial set of figures, may surprise some readers and confirm the suspicions of others. One thing is for sure: it brings data to a conversation to date high on opinions but low on facts.

In August 2014, 364 players were named on the teamsheets of the opening fixtures of the new elite under-19 League of Ireland short season.

This was the beginning of the new pathway to the first team at League of Ireland clubs. All League of Ireland clubs, bar Cabinteely, were represented.

Mervue Utd and Salthill Devon were the Galway representatives rather than Galway Utd, while both Letterkenny Rovers and Finn Harps fielded teams.

In August and September the following year (2015), 351 players were named on the under-17 teamsheets in the opening fixtures of the initial short season.

The same clubs were involved this time, with the exceptions being Cabinteely's inclusion at the expense of Letterkenny Rovers and the arrival of the Monaghan United Cavan Football Partnership

This article is extracted from an upcoming paper which is to be published in the coming months. As part of that process, findings from other studies were compared and contrasted to see how the league compared with others around the world.

I looked at those 715(364 + 351) players and sought to find out how many were still involved in League of Ireland clubs in September of 2019.

The figures are constantly changing as there are many factors – educational, migratory and economic being three of the most common I’ve encountered – at play when dealing with young players, the majority of whom are amateurs.

I first carried out this piece of research for a conference in October 2018 and will compare both sets of figures to give an idea as to what is happening.

It’s important to stress that this is the first piece of research carried out on the reformed underage leagues, as it’s only now that the vast majority of the former under-17s and all the under-19s should be entering adult football.

As such, it’s just a snapshot of a moment in time, but hopefully will provide an opportunity for conversation and a reference point for further research.

Of the 715 players who started, there are currently 100 involved with League of Ireland clubs at the time of writing: 47 in the First Division, 52 in the Premier Division and one in an under-19 amalgamation club.

This figure of 100 today was 188 in October of last year.

To break it down further, of the 364 former under-19 players there are currently 47 still with League of Ireland clubs – the figure stood at 59 in October 2018. This represents a drop of approximately 20% IN THE LAST YEAR.

Of the 351 under-17s, there are 53 still in the League of Ireland. There were 129 in October 2018. This represents a drop of roughly 60%. Why the massive difference?

Most of the players involved left under-19 sides at the end of the 2018 season and haven’t made the transition to an adult League of Ireland squad.

This age group has been recognised as the timeframe during which a substantial drop-off rate occurs across many sports, both in an Irish and worldwide context, and there is a strong body of research to support it.

Where are these players now playing? The following tables show the numbers produced by each club as well as those currently playing with the club.

It’s worth noting that there are 25 players who are currently playing abroad professionally but aren’t included in the figures here as the ultimate aim of the underage leagues is to produce players to populate the adult teams in the League of Ireland.

This piece of research is not written to validate those who stay in the League of Ireland, rather to answer the question as to how effective the actual pathway to senior League of Ireland football has been for the original group of under-19s and under-17s.

Numbers produced by each club

Current clubs of the players left in the LOI.

These figures only concern the players involved in the opening weekend of fixtures of each respective campaign, as sourced from the FAI Stats Portal, and are not representative of the squads used throughout the season.

However, taking a sample size of 715 is large enough to provide a reference point for future research into this area.

As mentioned previously, a primary aim of the underage leagues is to provide players who end up playing in adult League of Ireland teams.

As identified in this research, 100 are still involved in the LOI system, but what about the league as a whole?

Surely with an under-19 league in existence since 2014 there should be an increase in players with experience playing solely inside the League of Ireland? Not exactly.

The teamsheets from the same weekend in 2014 as the under-19 short season began were examined, as a reference point to show how the League of Ireland looked at the start of the new pathway.

The teamsheets from the same weekend in 2018 and 2019 were also examined to observe how or if the patterns of player development have changed.

The 2014 figures show that 115 players who had experience playing outside the league were named in LOI teamsheets.

Of these, 38 were in the First Division with 72 in the Premier Division. 2018 saw a similar number, 118, with 32 in the First Division and 86 in the Premier Division.

This season, again 118 players were present with experience in other leagues but the figure is now 26 in the First Division and 92 in the Premier Division.

As a caveat, it must be stated that, with a figure of approximately 66% of players being home produced, this is a figure which ranks way above the majority of the leagues throughout Europe.

A European club study conducted in November 2015 found the average amongst 31 European leagues was less than 20%.

Players with experience playing outside the League of Ireland

As can be seen, the numbers of players who are exclusively LOI-produced hasn’t increased since the pathway first opened in 2014 and there is an increasing trend amongst Premier Division teams to look for players with experience outside the league.

Even within this number, there are massive variations. Geography can play a major part – for example, Sligo Rovers and Derry City both had 12 of their 18 with experience outside the league.

It can be argued that the quality of the player being produced is more important than populating the adult League of Ireland teams with players produced through the pathway just to fulfil a quota.

However certain questions need to be asked: Is the step from 19s to Premier Division football too big a step? Are Premier Division managers under too much pressure to try to gain European qualification to play academy products on a regular basis?

So if the trend amongst the First Division clubs is to populate the squads with players developed through the League of Ireland system and the majority of the players in the First Division are amateurs, either studying or with a second job, how are they catered for in the new pathway?

In 2015, FIFPro (the players’ union) conducted research which showed that 60% of LOI players in the study had a second job.

The Central Statistics Office in Ireland produced figures in 2016 which showed that approximately 70% of the Irish workforce (of 1.9 million people) had continued their education beyond the age of 19.

Add to that the findings of the PFAI (the Irish professional players union) in 2018 which found that 30% of the approximately 200 players who responded to their survey had no educational qualifications beyond the Junior Certificate.

Now it begins to become pretty important for the young players coming through to have prepared for their future outside football.

So what of these 100 and their preparation for the future? Three were still in secondary school in June so that leaves 97 who could have engaged with third level education.

85.5% of these (83 players) have taken part in further education. Some have graduated, others are still involved so it’s not possible to give exact numbers on qualifications yet.

However, with an increasing emphasis on having some form of qualifications in order to gain employment, it’s important to engage in some form of further learning.

In this study there is evidence of this with colleges, ITs, Colleges of Further Education and the FAI-ETB course all represented.

Despite UCD being the most common institution attended by the cohort of this study, the large body of other providers named highlights the fact that there is an appetite for education amongst young footballers.

Another example of this is the number of players (approximately 13) who have left to study in the USA on a soccer scholarship.

While there undoubtedly are challenges with trying to combine an education with playing elite level sport, there is also a body of data which supports the development of sport while studying.

This is an area that the FAI have developed with an increasing number of schools and colleges competing at national, secondary and third level while recreational leagues have been developed in a number of third level institutions.

Eight players, from the original 715, returned to the League of Ireland this summer (seven with experience of Third Level Education) and five of them played in the 2019 Collingwood Cup Final, the most prestigious Third Level soccer competition of the college season.

Two of the aforementioned have gone on to play in the Premier Division this season with the remaining six playing regularly in the First Division.

UCD have long proved it possible to be able to play and study. Maynooth University, University College Cork and University of Limerick were also represented by those eight students, indicating that it’s not only at Belfield where playing and studying is an option.

In conclusion, of the initial players in the opening fixtures of the Elite Underage Leagues, six out of seven are no longer involved in the League of Ireland.

Of those players who have remained in the league, the vast majority have engaged with Third Level Education alongside their playing career, while the number of players with experience outside the League of Ireland has remained static after five years of the new underage pathway.

It can be clearly seen that education and the development of a footballing career in the League of Ireland can go hand in hand.

I hope this data, taken from an upcoming paper, can open a conversation about a number of subjects and provide an evidence-based approach to those conversations already open.

If anyone has any questions or comments please get in touch with me @boscoisalive on Twitter.