The League of Ireland has announced a new partnership with MADE Football aimed at strengthening Academy standards, player development and wellbeing across the domestic game.
The partnership will see MADE work with the League of Ireland to create a bespoke Academy Quality Assurance and Auditing Framework, designed specifically around the needs and development ambitions of League of Ireland Academies.
It represents another significant investment in the structures that underpin the professional game, with the initiative funded by Government support for the LOI Academy Programme.
The new framework will examine the key components required to create high-quality player development environments, with player development and wellbeing positioned at the centre of the process.
League of Ireland Academies will undergo structured, independent evaluations, with clubs receiving evidence-based reports that identify areas of strength, priorities for development, and opportunities to improve their structures and programmes.
MADE will work with clubs following each evaluation to turn the findings into practical Academy Development Plans, providing support around implementation and helping Academies deliver sustainable improvements.
That emphasis on what happens after the audit will be central to the partnership.
“Our ambition is to continually improve the environments in which our young players are developing, and this partnership with MADE represents another important step in that journey,” said Will Clarke, Head of LOI Academies.
“We don’t want this to be simply an audit or compliance exercise. Working with MADE, we will co-design a framework specifically for the League of Ireland which allows us to evaluate where our Academies are today, identify areas of strength and areas for development, and, most importantly, provide clubs with the support they need to improve.”
“The real value of this process is what happens after the evaluation. We want the findings to translate into practical Academy Development Plans, better environments and better development opportunities for our young players.”
Clarke also acknowledged the Government and Sport Ireland investment supporting the Academy programme, highlighting the partnership as an example of how that funding is being directed toward long-term improvements in player development.
MADE Football works in player and Academy development and will bring international experience to the design of the Irish framework.
“We are honoured that MADE has been selected as the League of Ireland’s football partner,” said Terry Westley, Co-Founder and Technical Director of MADE.
“This is an exciting developmental project to be involved in – a project that will be co-designed with the LOI, shaped to support the Irish football environment and grounded in best practice.”
The partnership comes as the League of Ireland continues to increase central support for its Academy system while leaving individual clubs responsible for the day-to-day development of their players.
It also follows the recently announced league-wide agreement with Kitman Labs, which will provide its Intelligence Platform across the League of Ireland Academy structure.
Taken together, the investments point towards a more systematic approach to Academy development: establishing common standards centrally, improving the quality and consistency of data available to clubs and introducing independent evaluation of the environments in which young players are being developed.
The significance for football here will ultimately be measured not by the audits themselves but by whether they lead to stronger coaching structures, better player welfare and clearer development pathways across the League.
That is where the MADE partnership is designed to make its greatest impact.
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Image Credit: FAI, Sportsfile.com
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