Youth system

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In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if they show enough promise and potential, and to fill up squad numbers in some teams with small budgets.^[1][2] In contrast to most professional sports in the United States where the high school and collegiate system is responsible for developing young sports people, most football and basketball clubs, especially in Europe and Latin America, take responsibility for developing their own players of the future.^[3]

A subset of youth academies are referred to as elite academies, designated for teenagers and young adults. These academies typically have a higher cost of capital incurred for maintaining an optimal environment for practice as well as cups and other competitions that may be partaken.

Elite academies often have full time staff including but not limited to coaches, physiotherapists, office staff and other roles that assist in the operations of the academy. Rules of top academies are strict and unlike other association football clubs, most clubs will have strict travel rules and will not allow players to drive to and from matches on the same day if under the age of 21 due to fatigue levels and stress.

Underage players may sign youth contracts with the club or association that owns the elite academy. It is also common for elite academies to offer the ability to study in parallel with the academy training, such as is the case in for example the system of college sports in the United States. Schools may offer sports focused programmes in order to integrate their student experiences with the academies of affiliation.^[4]