In England the majority of young people between the ages of 16-19 continue their studies through attending Colleges of FE and Sixth Form Colleges.
The English Colleges Football Association (ECFA) is a relatively young organisation formed in 2002 following the developments that had taken place within British Colleges Sport its parent body. The English Colleges Football League is a National Youth League sanctioned by the FA, to provide a competitive fixtures for young talented footballers enrolled into College Football Development Centres throughout the country.
Initially eighteen Football Development Centres were established at colleges with some 800 student enrolments. By the start of the 03/04 season the number of college centres had increased to seventy one with over 2500 full-time students.
These college Football Development Centres provide for students who wish to return or continue with full-time education or vocational training whilst at the same time improving their football skills through exposure to a minimum of six hours practical coaching delivered by regional coaches qualified to level 3 or level 4 and structured playing opportunities. The seventy one centres play competitive fixtures based on a regional structure of eight leagues with the winners of each league competing in a champions knock out competition.
Additionally many of the Football Development Centres have long standing partnership arrangements with their local non-league football clubs with a small number recently developing links with football league clubs as part of their youth development policy.
The start of 03/04 season has heralded a more structured development of opportunities for women 16-19 students in colleges. The women’s league, growing from a small base in 02/03 has now expanded to three regional leagues accommodating 21 college teams.
The work of ECFA is supported by the Football Association through its Football Development Strategy. The second year of the ECFA business plan focuses on quality assurance processes linked to the piloting of the FA College Charter Standard Scheme, player development through the staging of a number of residential weekends and coach development.
The development of additional partnerships with the Professional Footballers Association and Adidas along with grant support from British Colleges Sport has benefited ECFA’s national representative squad programmes with fixtures in the USA and Italy.