PowerPlay Magazine

We all know the feeling. That feeling of anticipation each week followed by a sense of anguish (or joy if you're lucky). That moment when we click "view players from the academy" we stop breathing and eagerly await a potential franchise-changing player. What pops up before our eyes however, is more often than not disappointing. We then follow this by reading what stellar players were pulled by other teams and we're given the feeling that we have no luck and the sports academy gods hate us. It is just that feeling that prompted me to begin a campaign to fully understand the inner-workings of our sports academies.

I decided to focus on soccer if for no other reason than the new season had just started. So I created a document that would keep records of players pulled in addition to relevant staff and facility information for each team. I then developed a program to run through the submitted data and tabulate stats on varying areas of interest.

With over 300 submissions at the time this article was written, many of the areas of interest have started to converge and conclusions can be made with considerable confidence. However, the key target of the study is still far from being supported with enough data and that's where this article comes in.

In addition to introducing the topic I wanted this article to double as a recruiting mechanism. The final task I wish to complete with this project is to figure out how sporting directors impact the players presented to you on a weekly basis. To do this, I need lots of data at varying levels of youth training efficiency yet the same level of the sports academy facility. So, here is your task, should you choose to help...

There is an online form HERE. What I'm requesting is that every time you click "view players from the sports academy" you open the online form and log information on all players you were offered and not just the ones you kept. You will enter the level of your sports academy and also the youth training efficiency of your sporting directors. Adding this to data on all the players you were offered will provide the necessary data to do a full analysis.

Right now we have lots of data to understand many things (odds of 6/6 vs. 5/6, odds of L vs. R vs. U etc.). No data is irrelevant. Data from low-level sports academies will help define the curve of player ability vs. sports academy level. Data from high-level sports academies will help define via their youth training efficiency the effectiveness of staff at a given level. Please keep that link handy and respect the process, do not fake numbers or submit false data, it will only hurt the entire community.

Thanks for your time, I look forward to your submissions! I will report back on the data in various chapters. You can expect results to be published starting in the next week or two.