Measures for a Better Youth Development Environment in European Professional Football

Abstract

Wolf for their suggestions to improve previous versions of this paper. We are also very grateful to the participants of the RBFA Knowledge Centre-UAntwerpen FBE seminar on 31 May 2018 for their input. All remaining errors are ours.

Additional substitutions in elite European football

“…While this effect can be seen for the Premier League as well, U21-eligible players played 12 min on average after substitution in comparison to 6 minutes in the Premier League. This might partially be caused by a stronger age cohort, but the 81% greater increase in playing minutes still indicates the benefits of the additional substitutions for young player development in line with Vermeire et al 26 To show how much young players benefit from more playing minutes, the increase in playing time of the young players can be compared with the increase in playing time of the substitutes overall. The increase in playing minutes for U21-eligible players exceeds the increase in playing minutes by all substitutes (increase in load reduction = 46%).…”

“…10 Young players do not seem to gain enough experience by not playing enough minutes at professional level to compete with more mature players. 26 Failure to reach a certain number of games and minutes played (25 games, 900 minutes played in line with Vermeire et al 26 ) may classify a young player as not sufficiently experienced, which in turn leads to fewer opportunities to play in the first team. 26 To examine whether additional substitutions, as suggested by the coaches, will give the young players the opportunity to achieve more playing minutes is therefore one of the aims of this work.…”