Arsenal have agreed to enter the inaugural Youth Champions League, Young Guns has exclusively learnt. The tournament, designed to run alongside the flagship UEFA Championship League, is due to kick off in August.
UEFA have been working with officials from Ajax, Celtic, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City and Sporting Lisbon to trial the idea, which is seen as an adventurous and exciting move for Under 18’s football. The final plans are yet to be confirmed, but Arsenal will make up one of the first groups, along with Ajax, Bayern Munich, Basel and an unconfirmed Scandinavian team.
In a similar way to its bigger brother, the Youth Champions League will open with a group stage, consisting of four teams per group. Qualification would then lead to progression to a knock out phase, scheduled for January 2012. The initial aims are for matches to be played in the club’s home stadiums, meaning Arsenal would be playing their fixtures at the Emirates. This is seen as a key way of helping clubs make up the costs of their European exploits.
The final details are still to be ironed out, but Young Guns expects Arsenal to make an announcement on the competition in the summer.
You can discuss Arsenal’s entry to the Youth Champions League and much more in a live web chat with editor Jamie Sanderson from 7pm UK time.
I really like this. Are there any plans to televise this event? This should be a really interesting watch, especially to see our young gunners against other great youth teams.
Young Guns vs La Masia. What a great match that would be.
its uefa ofcourse they will televise it
isn’t it potential dangerous for the smaller club cant think of a better way for arsenal scouts to find the best and most gifted players in clubs like Lisbon, Ajax and bring them to Arsenal before they can become WC
uhmm… more money for them, for the club(gate fees) but I wonder if Heineken would still sponsor this being Under-18 and all. This is not a step in the right direction in my opinion. let the youth be youth they can play as many champions league tournaments if they eventually prove to be good enough… on another note what effect does it have on the reserve league, youth FA cup and other domestic competitions? I’m sorry but I don’t see the sense in this save for profit, would be happy to be shown otherwise. (Fantastic blog btw J.S)
Our under 18’s will get their arses handed to them.
It will made a lot of nose around youth player which will destroy some of them but it’s good idea to know some of young players around the eurpe
Sounds exciting but.. I could see this hampering loan moves like Afobe’s. Unless his ‘Youth loan’ could be extended to allow him to play in this competition too but nevertheless it would make any loan move for our youngsters less attractive for league clubs and in return block any real potential competitive football in the lower leagues.
This tournament is so exciting. We will see how good our youth development really is.It should have happened a few years ago.On the down side, young players especially from the Netherlands can be stolen by the bigger clubs.German clubs at the moment are the best in youth development so it will be interesting to see how good Bayern Munich and the other German clubs will be.
I agree with other comments, that clubs would be scared to play U18s in case they are scouted and taken away. I like to see a U21s league. This would give teams to give players on the fringe of first team action more experience and teens can be added to introduce them to the game.
This competition sound really exciting but after watching the reserves I wonder if this will just expose the flaws in English youth football.
Don’t get me wrong, England clearly don’t have the worst youth program in the world but I think when we go up against Spanish, Dutch and even French teams we will come undone.
If you take Real Madrid’s Under 18 side for example, they play in the fourth division of the Spanish league system. Which obviously won’t be the best standard of football but when you compare a fully professional league to that of a youth league there is no competition.
All our class youth players end up being loaned out anyway so doubt we would ever see our best youth players all playing on same team at same time
This idea have advantage and disadvantage so a lot of work has to be done.
Sounds a good idea to me, our Kids will learn a lot more playing against top european sides rather than up ~& under stuff in the domestic competions
How will they be able to cope playing two times a week? i really don’t like the idea, and with our under 18’s always very young compared to other under 18 teams our players will probably lose and it could hurt their confidence, whilst i accept this could be a good experience builder at their age more should be concentrated on them just developing skills and then eventually stepping up to the reserves and then first team squad. Though i do like the idea of the games being played at the emirates will help the players cope with the atmosphere
It won’t be every week will it. And players out on loan at championship clubs are usually over 18. Players who go on loan to premiership clubs like wilshere will have left u18 level behind anyway. It will mean tweaking the clubs policy but that’ll be fine. In the future a player like Afobe plays u18’s league and youth cup and europe then when he’s 18/19 loan to a championship prem side or into the first team. Can see it working but I don’t think its the best idea personally.
Interesting concept, I was actually discussing the idea of Youth European competition with a friend just a couple of days ago although we were thinking along the lines of an U20 or U21 tournament to supplement Reserve league football.
The U18s have a much better set-up with the Academy league and the FA Youth Cup, it doesn’t seem like they need more football. It’s the 19/20 year olds (atleast in English football) who could do with a tournament like this, as Reserve football is just a holding pen they have to endure in between loan spells. And many of those loans aren’t successful, lower league managers fighting for survival/promotion tend not to be very patient with another club’s inconsistent youngsters…
At first i thought it will expose them but then again under 17 wc exists.d tournament is a grt idea,& it can only let d kids know what it means to win trophys@ youth level & am sure when its debut alot of things will be reviewed btw i fear 4 our current under 18s
Firstly will the Spainish be interested in showcasing amateur under 18s to the rest of Europe. Second point Arsenal would probably view that this comp gives enough incentive not to loan as many players out or maybe for shorter periods. Finally, the NRL (rugby league in Aussie and NZ) run an Under20 competition that runs alongside the senior team meaning the youngsters travel with the 1st team and play their match as a curtain raiser 2 hours before the main game. It’s been running a few years now and the fans seem to be getting earlier, watching more of the U20s and the players say the step up to senior squad is becoming easier. Could be an interest model for the premiership
Would be happier if limit was slightly older, ie, players that are already on longer contracts to avoid all the hype and poaching. Would also like to see the matches played before a champions league game say kicking off at 6pm thus giving you a little bit more for your money. Whilst giving the youngsters a better chance of a decent crowd.
sanderson you are a fool if you think project youth will work out as it is. enough of this shit. we are the arsenal not a developer of youth players.
retard4ever
Fuck off you tool
sounds good and exciting. You can’t hide good players in the top academies anymore but for the smaller teams like the teams from scandinavia and some balkan teams and such some players will leave sooner. I really want to see U18 football but that reason alone makes me thinks it’s better if it would be u20.
arsenal4ever, don’t be a prick! Jamie runs this website about the youth teams, which we would have whoever was in charge, regardless of AW’s fascination with project youth! He does a lot of good work, along with JB in keeping us up to date with the youngsters.
Why would any smaller club sign up for this? It is already hard enough for them to keep their young talents, now you want to put them on a bigger showcase? Makes no sense.
Arsenal4ever…. Yah, this “youth project” has been a massive flop. It is not like we are in 2nd in the league sitting above 2 teams with unlimited budgets and it is not like we are focusing on youth for a reason. It is like half of the Arsenal fans have no concept of reality lol. We built a stadium that needs to be paid for. That is where would be transfer funds go towards. How hard is this to understand?
Jules New Zealand.
I have thought that idea could work, except play the youth games after the main games in the case of weekend matches. With some people staying and some staying it would help the congestion of people leaving the stadium as they would leave in drips and drabs.
Plus keep it as a reserve tie, so any player not in the squad for the first team game is eligible.
I agree, doing it after the game also means you can’t get issues of first teamers claiming the pitch wasn’t perfect etc. Although this website would give a off balance percentage people wanting to attend I bet there would still be a decent number of fans. Over here the support for U20 NRL keeps increasing as fans see the skill level and the commitment from the youth is refreshing. The question is the cut off age as too high means devalueing the reserves but too young means it’s not really a stepping stone to first team
Stupid idead IMO, just another money making, corporate and merchandising innitiative from UEFA.
This initially seemed like a good idea, but it really isn’t.
During the development phase (youth) goals should not be outcome based (winning trophies, stuff per se), but always should be about developing physical and technical skills.
Having this may encourage teams alter a player’s development just to win what is essentially a meaningless trophy. It may mean players not going out on loan, something a lot more important to them than this.
There is less need for loaning players as they play against high quality players. If the cut off age is say 20 with a couple of under 23’s then the talent would be pretty high. The stepping stone of an Arsenal loanee to a championship club then becoming a first teamer compared to staying at Arsenal and players against the best of european youth talent is harder, I wonder what option Wenger would prefer
Since when have Arsenal stood in the way of a young player’s development to win a meaningless trophy? Just look at how many players we’ve loaned out and our positions in the Reserve and Academy tables. We never prioritise results over progress.
Secondly, how would this U18 competition mean players not going out on loan? We don’t loan out Academy players…
I agree with you in theory, but I feel like that distinction (outcomes v. development) is much more important at the very young ages. I don’t feel like having our U18s compete will be detrimental. Anyway, if any club is to be trusted with balancing that distinction properly it would be Arsenal (along, of course, with the other prestigious youth academies).
Despite comments to the contrary I think this will be a big help to the development of youngsters. A lot on here commenting on the idea that it will prioritise winning over development, but what better way to aide development than to pit our U18’s against the best academies in Europe? They’ll be playing in more technical games against higher quality opposition on quality pitches. It will encourage them to utilise large, wide pitches and play good technical football. The defenders will learn a huge amount by playing against players full of flair from Europe’s top youth sides.
My main concern would be burn out… we do have quite a large youth squad though (and a fair few of our reserves would be involved) and I imagine we’d see the best of the bunch involved in the European games, whilst a second string compete in the FA Youth trophy.
Reply to Wrenny – that’s were a under20 would be a good option. The likes of JET, Lansbury and co would gain more from playing against the best europe has to offer rather from playing on a muddy paddock in some lower division. Why are so many complaining, it’s basically an extension of cup comps we already send players off to. Why don’t people complain better “putting trophies in front of development” when Arsenal do this ?
Nice Post! I really this to see in showdown between this football teams in Finals.
http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/articles/club-to-compete-in-new-euro-u19-tournament-020611.html
Arsenal is not in the comp. What happened?
waw i would like to win this but unfortunately i live far away i live in canada