“With the help of their parents,” should have been added, if the title wasn’t already long enough! The latest document provided by the Scottish Football Association (SFA) explains, analyses and outlines their brand-new ten-year development plan for local football. In this 120-page document, technical staff repeatedly and emphatically highlight the role of parents and other guardians. An excerpt reads: “It is the family, most often a parent or guardian, that decides whether a child will have this early opportunity to master the game. As we can see, parental involvement is a key factor in top-level performance, especially during the early years. The SFA and the academies must encourage parents and guardians to be fully involved in their children’s development throughout their football journey, and support them so they can achieve their full potential.” To achieve this, the SFA intends to focus on making football accessible at home and encouraging children to play freely with their parents.
The report specifically highlights the 3-to-5-year-old age group: “The SFA must drive a cultural shift that encourages children to master the ball at home from a very young age. Firstly, because the development of the brain and nervous system is such that everything a child is exposed to during their early years has a significant impact on their development, and secondly, because growing up with a ball in early childhood seems to make manipulating it with the feet almost second nature to the brain.” Turning its attention to the older age groups in football academies, the same document further states: “Children’s basic education should focus on the enjoyment of playing with the ball, rather than solely on matches.” "It's difficult to say how many years it will take to prove the effectiveness of this approach and bring Scotland back into the fold of major nations, but in the meantime, let's agree that the federation intends to bring together all the forces and resources the country has to achieve this."