First Touch Football Academy

Success is when preparation mets opportunity.

All the best to all the candidates countywide

+ learning + healthy living.

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Something big coming up.


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Good morning Coaches!

As earlier promised the *CAF C Licenses courses* have been approved and are now available for the participants who were certified previously at the *FKF D License* level with a minimum of six months practice and at a maximum of thirty *(30) participants*.

The said courses are scheduled to start on *Monday, April 05, 2021, to Friday, April 30, 2021*, in *Mombasa, Nairobi and Kisumu*, please note that the registration will start on *Tuesday, Feb 02, 2021*.

You are hereby requested to send in your request by *Tuesday, Feb 23, 2021*, including your county, full names, copy of your FKF D license cert and current club to [email protected] copied to [email protected]/[email protected].

Upon confirmation, you will be required to pay an amount of *Kshs 15000* to;

*FOOTBALL KENYA FEDERATION*
*KENYA COMMERCIAL BANK LIMITED (KCB) THIKA ROAD MALL BRANCH*
*PAY BILL: 522522*
*ACC NUMBER: 1179044916*

Thereafter a registration link will be shared for application!

For more information or clarifications please feel free to contact/WhatsApp us through 0720550513/0721170056.

Best regards,
*Technical Department*

Do bigger kids have a bigger chance?

In this country we have always had a bias towards size in our football players. If you look at most professional academies and shadow squads there very few players below average height for their age. Part of this is due to the physical demands of of competitive football at the highest level and part of it is due to the difficulty for smaller players to thrive in their environments.

The way our football system works allows players who are confident, capable and willing to play up an age group in games and tournaments. A 10-year-old with enough technical ability and size can play as in under 10 or under 11 player. The merits and advantages to this can be argued but what is on disputable is that our FA does allow players to play up or beyond the age group.

Whilst this allowance is made for players who are above average in either height, technical ability or perhaps both there are very few allowances for players with the opposite attributes. For instance a 10-year-old who is classed as an under 10 in his age group by his date of birth would not be allowed to play in an under 9s team because the rules don’t allow it. Now bear in mind that a 10-year-old who is only just old enough to play under 10s and could be just a week away from being under 9 age category could also be extremely small
for his age. Now take into consideration that same player could be playing against players who are 10 years old and have been 10 for nearly a year and are way above the average height for their age.

•Looking at this in more detail..

The average height of a 10 year old
In the UK is 138cm.
The average height of an 11 year old is 144cm

That means a 10 year old who is small and light weight with a height of 133cm (9 yo average) would be expected to play against, compete with, tackle and chase players who are 11cm taller than him and weigh 10 kilos more.

We have seen players lose confidence, motivation and love for the beautiful game because of a lack of success. By competing with players who have an advantage that they cannot match, small players are forced to struggle, play within their limits and get on with it against sometimes impossible odds.

•So what is the solution?

The English FA have a special dispensation rule which can be applied to children who are within the bottom few percent of their height for their age group. This requires doctors medical reports, a long and arduous process to go through and absolutely no guarantees that a dispensation will be made as there is no black and white rule.

Whilst this process takes place, the child in question is either sat at home not playing the game they love because of their struggles, or trying to roll their sleeves up and play on against very steep odds.

In exceptional circumstances, you may be granted with the permission to play down an age group. This happens very few times.

•Bigger isn’t always better.

Smaller players have a lower centre of gravity, can often change direction quickly and can have exceptionally quick feet compared to taller players. All these traits make for some of the best and most exciting players to watch! However these traits and skills will be unlikely to flourish in a player who is playing within their limits, struggle to make up ground and cannot out run or out muscles their bigger opponents.

To put this into context, players under 11 years old in this country do not play competitive matches and score lines are not recorded. The FA are clear that they only want the emphasis of football at younger age groups to be about developing and fun, not about results... a great message right?

However, in the friendly games, that are all about fun, development and creativity... a 10 year old who is the size of the average 9 year old, unconfident and doesn’t not enjoy playing at his own age group, is absolutely not allowed to play against kids his own size because he was born 4 weeks before they were. Does that sound right?

As a country we need to look at our system, our categorisation should be about more than just age, especially at the foundations stages of kids football. Weight, height, ability, confidence and premature birth are all completely ignored when categorising children into the appropriate game format and peer group. Some academy systems are addessing this now and allowing players to train with younger players to help them flourish, but grassroots is still years behind.

This is just a few players who were below average height when growing up as young footballers.

David Silva
N’Golo Kante
Diego Maradona
Xavi Hernandez
Bernardo Silva
Andres Iniesta
Lionel Messi
Eden Hazard

Would they have flourished into the players they are today if they grew up in English football? Unfortunately, the answer is probably not.

Luckily these global superstars grew up in countries that allow for much more flexibility in the kids game.

Catalan Soccer