Every Chance:

Cardiff City FC has an academy that is the envy of many Premiership clubs, because of its phenomenal success rate, but Academy Director Neal Ardley – a former professional footballer with many clubs, including Wimbledon – recognises that the majority of young boys that pass through the academy will not have a career in top level football. Still they are given every chance, because Ardley and his talented staff know that young boys need support and develop at different rates.

“For every age group at the end of every season you have a few drop out,” Ardley told us exclusively. “We run development centres. We have nine around the area and what we try and do is develop them and if they need it we try and drop them back into our development centres. We’ve got our coaches running the development centres, so we can keep an eye on them and keep tabs on them.”

As they approach sixteen, hard decisions have to be made. Priorities and education techniques, including on the field change as results become more important – academy football is not results based, but the professional game is. Most will not be offered scholarships, let alone go straight into the first team. So what support can these boys expect at Cardiff?

Support:

Ardley and his staff try to give them every opportunity to play even if it won’t be for the Bluebirds. “When they get to Under-16s we support them as much as we can,” says Ardley. “We help them out to get a look at other clubs, or other clubs look at them and Steve Ellison who runs our education department speaks to them about college – where they can go, how they can take it forward – the links that we’ve got with coaches.”

Even if they are offered scholarships, there is no guarantee that they will become professional players. Cardiff wants them to have options. “At Under-18 football when they are in full time with us for two years – they get an education programme within the academy set up,” says Ardley. “Basically they come out of it at the end with the equivalent of two A-levels and a year on a coaching course – a coaching badge as well – so there’s loads of support mechanisms that are in place for the high percentage that don’t get there.”

If they see that a boy won’t make it as a player, there are options to give them careers within football – coaching for example. “We’ve got a system here, where we’ve got a link with the University of Glamorgan, and they run a Football Foundation course where the players here do the basics, which guarantees our Under-18 help with coaching,” says Ardley. “If they pass that and they do end up dropping out or falling behind, they have got the option with our link with the Football Foundation course at the University of Glamorgan.

That isn't the only assistance they provide for boys interested in coaching. “We‘ve actually got three better links with the extra coaches coming in and we’ve got three ex-players that work with our age groups in coaching, so obviously they’ve got a foothold,” he says. “They understand what we’re all about and they’ve got a foot on the ladder.”