Birmingham City FC Training Scheme

Roughly one year ago whilst I was playing for Birstall United 2004 FC, an unmissable opportunity arose as Birstall were entered into an indoor mini-tournament at Birmingham City FC’s indoor facilities. Four teams were selected or at least, that’s the amount that turned up, to take part in this talent spotting exercise.

During our time we played a ‘round robin system’ (where everybody plays everybody), to give the scouts a chance to examine our skill. Also, after these short games, a sprinting drill was organised to establish the quicker members of the four teams. The day was well organised, professional and enjoyable.

A short while after, our team managers had been informed on those few players invited to a training scheme. I was fortunate enough to be asked to join, which I felt was a chance not to be missed.

My mum opened up an account with the club as they asked, to pay £20 a month which would include one training session a week, run by official Birmingham City FC coaches. The course took place on Thursday evenings at Soar Valley Community College, which me and five of my team mates took part in. But, this was when things started to go slightly wrong.

Firstly, the training was up to a fairly good standard with a few different age groups integrating nicely, but within a few weeks, the quality started declining. Soon, the sessions were pretty average and boring. Next, we found out that we would be able to participate in a ‘footballing festival’ where a number of these training camps would come together to the Birmingham City FC training ground and perform in front of academy scouts. We were told there would be several of these days occurring over a period of time. The group attended the first of these festivals and it was a similar system to the indoor tournament, except for we weren’t in our Sunday teams. Players from a few neighbouring towns also played against us which was a nice challenge to take part in.

After this, one under 13’s player, was invited for a six week trial for Birmingham City FC’s academy. A pleasant piece of news for any budding footballer.

Although I didn’t particularly enjoy the training I continued attending in case I learned valuable football skills, but in hindsight, I did not. It appeared that the organisation was starting to become a shambles. Players missed a lot of sessions, and sometimes the coaches disappeared from time to time for different reasons.

Finally, a tragic e-mail was sent to the families informing them of a recent death of one of the coaches, which explained that the training would be on hold for a short while. In time, we got further e-mails and letters explaining for one reason or another, that the training will not be on for another period of time. At the finish, we had been delayed for three months, yet the account was still running so a total of £60 was taking from us for something we didn’t receive. At the end of this time, the whole organisation in our area had shut down and promises to us like more festivals and opportunities to shine, were not delivered. We complained about the £60 we payed, and wanted it returned to us as it was wrongly taken from us. They replied and informed us that we would be refunded the money that we shouldn’t have lost. This never happened and they are still in £60 debt to us to this day.

The whole experience seemed to me like a lemon sherbet. By this I mean it started of sweet, it was professional, and I got some tips out of it. But as I ate through the sweet layer it turned sour, as the organisation went into complete disarray.