RS

[RS @RoddySandeman13]

No academy ⚽️ this weekend so lads took part in Edinburgh 5k. Incredible effort from them. 22 minutes and a top 50 finish in adults race. Always want to challenge themselves and each other 😂 Proud 🥇

[RS @RoddySandeman13]

Great experience for Finlay playing back to back games for @HibernianFC Academy u11 and u12 against @DUFCAcademy at Easter Road. 3 goals for the wee man and some effort putting a shift in both games. 💪🙌⚽️⚽️⚽️

[RS @RoddySandeman13]

Not to sound like a broken record but what’s the point of being an elite academy if you can’t trust your young players in these games.Rangers will finish 3rd..That can’t change so give the talented young lads a start.🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿football needs to change quickly because the talent is there.

[Rangers Football Club @RangersFC]

🧡 Our starting XI at Falkirk.

Team News | https://t.co/7mBuG2GLzC

[Dougie Anderson @CoachDougieA]

Really interesting research around late maturation in youth players. ⚽️

Perhaps particularly insightful for our elite academies here in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. How many talented players are being released because they are not physically strong/big enough yet?

Late maturers develop additional skills to cope with playing against physically stronger opponents - do we release them too early before the can use the skills in a more competitive environment? Is there a long-term plan in place at the club for these players? Do the SFA provide enough opportunity for bio-banded matches?

Late maturers are likelier to have:
- increased technical ability
- increased resilience
- improved decision making under pressure
- increased creativity

So why are our academies still over-indexed with early in the year birthdays?

[RS @RoddySandeman13]

Happy 11th Birthday Finlay. Proud of you every day. ⚽️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[Adam | Gorgie Talk @GorgieTalk]

Been around enough grassroots football to believe we have boys who are small in height and/or weight in our country that could be the norm here.

An abundance of talent. But the reason it doesn’t happen is they get older and get told they are not big enough or strong enough.

The reason is the game as the older becomes all about physicality.

The ball mastery taught at primary age is inferior to physicality at secondary age and then it becomes the norm.

It’s all pro youth care about and it allows for so many young small footballers to slip through the net.

It demands wide scale change from top to bottom.

[RS @RoddySandeman13]

This 👇👏

[Advanced Football Academy @AdvFtbAcad]

Frankfurt's youth team play matches in a cage.

This seems to be a trend, to get young players more touches of the ball in games.

What are your thoughts

[Aberdeen FC @AberdeenFC]

A big thank you to everyone who took part in our @AberdeenFCYouth Katoni Festival on Sunday at the Sports Village 🙌

The annual Katoni Cup returns on Saturday 14th February 🏆

🔗 https://t.co/NBFDDrSvb8

[Aberdeen FC Youth Academy @AberdeenFCYouth]

Teams are all set and ready to kick off today’s Katoni Engineering Festival at Aberdeen Sports Village! ⚪️🔴⚪️🔴

[RS @RoddySandeman13]

2025 was a great year with lots of highs with Oliver starting @PerformSchools 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and Finlay settling into @HibernianFC Academy. Thanks to everyone that’s helped the lads on their journeys this year. Excited to see what 2026 brings 🙌⚽️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[Steven Ventura @StevenVent101]

While subjects like the relative age effect (RAE) and early academy engagement continue to divide opinions on youth development, one small footballing nation has tackled these issue head on.

In Denmark, professional academies cannot register players until U13 which encourages them to work with a grassroots partner club.

But, from U10, coaches from the professional clubs can start to provide an additional training session every week for selected players from their partner clubs (at no additional cost to the child).

Here comes the niche part: there is a 50% rule employed to protect relatively younger players, which means that 50% of the players in these centres have to be born in Q3 and Q4. This, in turn, means the clubs have to push their grassroots partner clubs not to deselect these players but to continue to develop them.

It should also be noted that there must be a ratio of at least 1 paid coach per 8 players at this age group.

No wonder FIFA highlighted the Danish youth development pathway as an environment where every talent can reach their goals and fulfil their potential.🇩🇰👏
@TheS_Resource @dbulandshold @DanishScout_ #RAE #Denmark

[RS @RoddySandeman13]

This is much needed in Scottish academy football and great to help late maturers but still long way to go as the vast majority of the players in the academy system are quarter 1 early maturing players. Fine if you are in the system but talent getting missed before this….

[Scottish FA @ScottishFA]

Club Academy Scotland ran the largest bio-banding festival in youth football last month.

Bio-banding sees late maturers play against younger players that are a closer physical match, while early maturing players are matched with older players.

➡️ https://t.co/LojdmJUKI3

[BBC Sport Scotland @BBCSportScot]

SOUND ON 🎧

This radio commentary from Alasdair Lamont!!! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

#BBCFootball

[RS @RoddySandeman13]

Can’t. Stop. Watching. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[Scotland National Team @ScotlandNT]

GET IN 💪

#SCODEN

[RS @RoddySandeman13]

@weejock21 Congratulations John. Great news 👍

[RS @RoddySandeman13]

Don’t think scrapping SFA Performance Schools is the way to go.Surely you keep an intake of footballers coming through system until you have something else in place for everyone.This report highlights talk of helping late developers, futsal, RAE👍but not clear on timescales….

[Scottish FA @ScottishFA]

NEWS | We have commissioned a review of Youth Development, and specifically the player development pathway, in advance of the publication of a new 10-year strategic plan.

➡️ Read more, including the full review and an Executive Summary: https://t.co/La0hyn2Uzr

[RS @RoddySandeman13]

Happy 12th Birthday Oliver. Proud of you every day. ⚽️🖤🤍🖤

[Alan 'Chalky' White @ch4lkster]

Filming new @ScottishFA Coach Education content @Oriamscotland today.
Brilliant to have the @BroHighOfficial S1&2 performance players along to boost the sessions. Top effort 👏🏼

[RS @RoddySandeman13]

Great 2 day tournament hosted by @CelticFC with the young @HibernianFC lads winning the final 1-0 against Celtic. Loads of good, competitive games. Wee man loving his football 🙌⚽️ 🏆

[Scottish FA @ScottishFA]

The latest in-take to our JD @PerformSchools were at Hampden Park for the 2025 launch this week 🙌

The youngsters will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Billy Gilmour, Leah Eddie, and more - tap below to read more about the programme ⤵The latest in-take to our JD @PerformSchools were at Hampden Park for the 2025 launch this week 🙌

The youngsters will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Billy Gilmour, Leah Eddie, and more - tap below to read more about the programme ⤵The latest in-take to our JD @PerformSchools were at Hampden Park for the 2025 launch this week 🙌

The youngsters will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Billy Gilmour, Leah Eddie, and more - tap below to read more about the programme ⤵The latest in-take to our JD @PerformSchools were at Hampden Park for the 2025 launch this week 🙌

The youngsters will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Billy Gilmour, Leah Eddie, and more - tap below to read more about the programme ⤵️