Irish football: at a crossroads but not dancing anymore
I was recently invited on to Morning Ireland on RTE radio by Darren Frehill to discuss the crossroads that Irish football now finds itself at. You can listen here from about 40 secs: https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22326843/
In the following text I would like to extend on a few of the ideas that I brought up.
The choice of who will be the new Irish manager (men and women) is basically addressing the process of solving a short-term need. However, Irish football seems to be at a serious crossroads. Indeed, one could argue that Irish football has been at a serious crossroads for many years now. Financial scandals, pothole politics and more recent unfortunate administrative financial discrepancies, highlights how the FAI and Irish football have merely been dancing at the crossroads since the halcyon days of Jack Charlton, rather than dealing with the serious business of evolving Irish football. The come down has proven costly.
There is of course a lot of talk about change, the launch of a strategic plan, structures and restructuring, policies, player development pathways, coach education pathway. For me this is just administrators, now the gate keepers of the game, reinforcing, and sustaining the illusion of professionalism. Robert Pirsig’s iconic passage from ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ comes to mind.
“If a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves… There’s so much talk about the system. And so little understanding.”
The need for an understanding of culture and context within the ecosystem of Irish football has long been ignored and I would argue, its potential greatly underestimated. There is so much talk about the system and so little understanding.
I have listened to the ongoing Irish football debate over the last few years. Even now when the dancing has stopped, the song remains the same and the same patterns of thought get repeated and repeated. A particular feature of these discussions has been the amount of reductionist cause-effect arguments- other countries or clubs do X and they get Y, we need to do the same (a common feature of discussions in other countries). I recently listened to an Irish podcast where an eminent ‘football man’ argued that we need to get the best 8-year old’s together in academies to teach them the game. I discussed this with a friend of mine from Dublin who now lives in Stockholm. He said, “welcome to Dublin schoolboys soccer for the last 30 years”.
What is really been referred to here is what has become known as the Standard Model of Talent Development (SMTD) (Bailey & Collins, 2013). Essentially, basing identification on early ability or physiological and/or anthropometrical measures; and the removal of athletes from the system as they progress from one level to the next. Described as a ‘pyramid’ structure dependent on strong coordinated central governance, this model lacks both empirical and conceptual validity (Bjørndal et al., 2016). Indeed, Ford and colleagues (2020) revealed an ongoing difficulty in identifying young players and keeping them in the system, while revealing the systems inherent difficulty in coping with inherent fluctuations in performance and development. In 29 of the best professional soccer clubs from around the world, they highlighted a relatively high annual turnover of players, around 29%, through age groups. Many models based on this ‘pyramid’ shape clearly fail to account for the complexity and nonlinearity of human development (Vaughan et al., 2019; Bailey & Collins, 2013), fundamentally highlighting inherent problems related to the prediction of the future (Finnegan, 2020).
Far too many talent development discussions in Irish football are being driven by anecdotal stories based on survivorship bias within these ‘pyramid’ systems. Select some eggs early, put the eggs in a bag, throw the bag against the wall, take out the egg that doesn’t break- The system works! Make this system the only game in town and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Well, talent is the graveyard of evidence, nobody sees the dead bodies.
The process of talent development is complex, dynamic and characterised by uncertainty and unpredictability in relation to future outcomes (Phillips et al., 2010). In European youth football, this complexity has been compounded by some recent developments. For example, alchemic pursuit of identifying and developing young ‘talent’ has gained intensity since the “Bernard case” in 2010. Essentially a follow up to the 1995 Bosman ruling. The European Court of Justice ruled that football clubs can seek compensation, if young players they trained signed their first professional contract with a team in another EU country. Youth football could now be framed as an economic activity, thus encouraging the training of young ’talented’ players as a form of human capital investment (Hendrickx, 2010).
The process of talent development is complex, and for every complex problem there’s a solution presented that is simple (other countries do X and they get Y so we should do it), neat (administrative strategy document, generic player development pathway), and more than often problematic. It’s the illusion of professionalism. There’s so much talk about the system. And so little understanding.
There is no copy -paste template
It is well documented that the FAI, until recently, have been implementing a so-called Dutch model to underpin its player development plan. Referring to my earlier point highlighting a need to understand culture and context within the ecosystem of Irish football, this showed a lack of appreciation for the idea that player development does not take place within a socio-cultural and historical vacuum. Indeed, any player development plan proposed by a national sports governing body that doesn’t take into consideration the specific culture and context, is essentially just a typical generic copy-paste development plan. In a 2015 UEFA study of the top seven football nations North and colleagues (2015) warned against this superficial approach, the uncritical application of practice ideas from other successful countries and clubs. My colleagues and I have carried out research highlighting the risks associated with ignoring the diverse and deeply rooted nature of socio-cultural constraints that shape how the game may be played from locale to locale (O’Sullivan et al., 2021; 2023a; 2023b; 2023c).
This message was central to a podcast discussion I had with the Dutch FA and the Canadian Soccer Association in May 2020 -If you try and copy and paste someone else’s ideas, it just won’t work!
The problem is, when you copy a Dutch model or a Dutch way (e.g.,Ajax) in to another country, it will not work. Our infrastructure is so unique for example. – Jan Verbeek (KNVB)
So, what about the divide between Ireland and other countries on the continent when it comes to player development? This has been another central point of discussion. My research has recently turned up a new twist in the copy-paste template phenomena that I think believe offers Ireland (and other countries) great hope. There is a worrying trend – an emerging, and accelerating, homogenisation of football and coach education through a globalised methodology across football cultures, regardless of context (O’Sullivan et al., 2023c). A sort of ‘methodological imperialism’. In his insightful Qatar World Cup analysis in the Athletic, long time Guardiola mentor and now his assistant coach, Juanma Lillo (2022) referred to the homogenisation of the game, with everyone using the same methods and tactics. Interestingly, Argentina was the exception, returning to ‘la nuestra’ (our game, our values), arguably rebelling against the globalisation and homogenisation of ‘trending’ tactical modes. But that’s another story.
Lillo also argued that irrespective of context, a training session in Norway and one in South Africa (for example) would likely be the same, perhaps characterised by ‘two touchism’. As a self-confessed exponent of many of these ideas that have been copy and pasted freely around the world, Lillo reflected on his own contribution to this homogenisation, stating: “if there was one person I would really want to question now, it would be me from 25 years ago”.
I believe that it is somewhere within this homogenisation and globalisation of the game that Irish football now finds itself, lost without an identity, and if the ongoing player development debate is too be believed, still seeking copy-paste solutions from other more successful nations, while been blinded by unicorns and survivors and misled by economic forces. There’s so much talk about the system. And so little understanding.
So how does this offer Ireland great hope? I have long argued in my research work, that player development frameworks should evolve in interaction with the socio-cultural context in which people are embedded. There is no copy-paste template. The incredible unique culture and context that the ecosystem of Irish football is embedded in, offers so many opportunities for the development of Irish football. Opportunities unique to Ireland alone. For example, Hurling, Gaelic football, rugby, and basketball, provide the potential for a broad movement and skill landscape that can complement and enrich the movement and skills of young developing Irish footballers. Of course, the important point here is, don’t deny kids the opportunity to play other sports and don’t force them play other sports. Provide opportunities and make it affordable. Make coach education affordable. In fact, make it free, especially at the grassroots level. I completed my UEFA A license in Sweden over 10 years ago. I didn’t pay for one course on the way. Value education and place a high value on having highly educated coach educators, this is crucial.
Of course, the SFAI (Schoolboys/girls Football Association of Ireland), the governing body for under-age football in the Republic of Ireland have a major role to play in this. Do the various governing bodies, and I am talking about at the level of administration, want to be system limiters by governing through self-interest or system enablers through placing children at the centre? Football is for children, not the other way around.
The debate into the development of Irish football needs to move from prioritising the administrative box ticking needs of structure, policy and strategy, towards a more pedagogical, philosophical, and socio-cultural discussion/ investigation, one that places young players and their learning IN development at the centre of the discussion. Only then s can we develop structures and strategies to support the evolution of a player development framework within this unique socio-cultural context. There is no copy-paste template.
There’s so much talk about the system. And so little understanding.
Podcast: I was lucky to be invited on to the excellent Mike Quirke podcast series. You can listen here https://open.spotify.com/episode/3NqkyhwoJt5K2KWyZhQ711?si=f065c3996cd04982
Mike is using the podcast to try and raise funds for the Lily Daly foundation to support the heart ward at Crumlin children’s hospital in Dublin.
RIP Sinead and Shane
References
Bailey, R., & Collins, D. (2013). The standard model of talent development and its discontents. Kinesiology Review, 2(4), 248–259.
Bjørndal, C., Ronglan, L.T., & Andersen, S.S. (2016). Talent development as an ecology of games: a case study of Norwegian handball. Sport, Education and Society, 22, 864 – 877.
Finnegan, L. (2020). ‘The talent is out there’ Talent development in Irish football: an examination of organizational structure and practice
Ford, P., Bordonau, J.L., Bonanno, D., Tavares, J., Groenendijk, C., Fink, C., Gualtieri, D., Gregson, W., Varley, M., Weston, M., Lolli, L., Platt, D., & Salvo, V.D. (2020). A survey of talent identification and development processes in the youth academies of professional soccer clubs from around the world. Journal of Sports Sciences, 38, 1269 – 1278.
Hendrickx, F. (2010). The Bernard-Case and Training Compensation in Professional Football. European Labour Law Journal, 1, 380 – 397.
Lillo (2022, December 8). An alternative analysis of the World Cup – by the man who helped shape Guardiola’s City. The Athletic. https://theathletic.com/3981374/2022/12/08/juanma-lillo-world-cup/
North, J., Lara-Bercial, S., Morgan, G., & Rongen, F. (2015). The identification of good practice principles to inform player development and coaching in European youth football. Report commissioned by UEFA’s Research Grant Programme 2013–2014.
O’Sullivan, M., Vaughan, J., Rumbold, J., & Davids, K. (2021). The Learning in Development Research Framework for sports organizations. Sport, Education & Society, 27(9), 1100-1114. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2021.1966618
O’Sullivan, M., Vaughan, J., Rumbold, J. L., & Davids, K. (2023a). Utilising the learning in development research framework in a professional youth football club. Frontiers in Sport and Active Living, 5: 1169531. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1169531
O’Sullivan, M., Woods, C. T., & Vaughan, J. (2023b). Not just to know more, but to also know better: How data analysis-synthesis can be woven into sport science practiced as an art of inquiry. Sport, Education & Society
O’Sullivan, M., Vaughan, J., Woods, C. T., & Davids, K. (2023c). There is no copy and paste, but there is resonation and inhabitation: Integrating a contemporary player development framework in football from a complexity sciences perspective
Phillips, E., Davids, K., Renshaw, I., & Portus, M. (2010). Expert performance in sport and the dynamics of talent development. Sports Medicine, 40(4), 271–283.
Vaughan, J., Mallett, C. J., Davids, K., Potrac, P., & López-felip, M. A. (2019). Developing Creativity to Enhance Human Potential in Sport: A Wicked Transdisciplinary Challenge. Frontiers in Psychology, 10(September), 116. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02090
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