{"id":395536,"date":"2026-01-08T06:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T06:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/395536\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T06:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T06:20:13","slug":"we-should-support-ex-academy-footballers-properly-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/395536\/","title":{"rendered":"We should support ex-academy footballers properly | Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">It is vital that we don\u2019t overlook the young footballers being cut from the system at this pivotal stage of the season (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2025\/dec\/31\/academy-system-club-contracts-max-dowman-arsenal\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">From breakups to contract minefields: it\u2019s make or break time for academy players, 31 December<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Many academy footballers have dedicated most of their childhoods to putting in thousands of hours of training, chasing a dream, only for it to be cut short when released from their contracts. At worst, we have seen young people turn to crime and self-harm, and suffer great psychological trauma.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">This can\u2019t be allowed to continue. There is a postcode lottery for aftercare when you are released. Support gets considerably patchier the further you move down the pyramid, due to a lack of resources. Psychological support for young players must be embedded in academies right from the outset.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Coordinated investment from the Football Association, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/premierleague\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Premier League<\/a> and the English Football League would go a long way to helping all clubs grow their psychological workforce and giving released academy players the support they need and deserve.<br \/>Stephen Smith<br \/>Chair, sport and exercise psychology division, British Psychological Society<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"> Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/jan\/07\/mailto:guardian.letters@theguardian.com?body=Please%20include%20your%20name,%20full%20postal%20address%20and%20phone%20number%20with%20your%20letter%20below.%20Letters%20are%20usually%20published%20with%20the%20author%27s%20name%20and%20city\/town\/village.%20The%20rest%20of%20the%20information%20is%20for%20verification%20only%20and%20to%20contact%20you%20where%20necessary.\" data-link-name=\"in body link \" https:=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tone\/letters\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is vital that we don\u2019t overlook the young footballers being cut from the system at this pivotal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-395536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}