This is one really uncertain area in Zambian football and perhaps the Football Association may want to look into the model taken.
Africa currently only has youth level competitions for the nations like the Africa Cup but is yet to go into youth level competitions like a CAF Youth League as is the case with the UEFA Youth League where clubs who have qualified for the Group Stage at senior Level will face off with the same opponents at group level as curtain raisers or earlier matches before the senior teams face off.
Currently Zambia has no specified developmental or youth league for players below a certain age but there are however feeder club’s for teams like Zesco United, Nkana, Zanaco and Power Dynamos as examples who play their football across the lower leagues of the country.
This is similar to the situation with Spanish teams who’s youth teams like Real Madrid Castilla or Barcelona B play in the second division of football. This allows for young players to have an environment surrounded by actually competitive football and a handful of experienced footballers for their grooming and learning as they develop.
An alternative to a system where the second string team plays in a lower division is the English system that has academy set ups at each club and has various youth level leagues. This system ensures that the players constantly play but at a limited quality of football and without competition as the teams aim in the matches becomes to monitor development and the only real test of progress is either promotion to a senior team or a loan deal to play first team football.
In the Zambian football scene teams are not yet required to have youth set ups to groom young talent from the area. But this does not stop teams from setting up feeder club’s to keep an eye out for talent away from the super league.
So Does the football Association have to intervene and make Academies part of requirements at a certain level and above for an instance when the Association is implementing the National Division one it could imose this as a prerequisite for all teams at Division one level going up to set up a youth academy and consequently set up a youth league (u21) to keep these academies competitive.
Of course this is all a long way from even being close to discussions at football house but perhaps this could provoke a pause for thought for current football administrators and future football administrators on a great way to ensure that clubs do not only compete at League and Division levels but also compete in player development for young players.
