British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) and The FA Emerging Club Leaders Pilot

BUCS is the national governing body of university sport in the UK.  There is a small football development team at BUCS who work closely with The FA to directly support the delivery of strategic objectives relating to BUCS and The FA strategies.  Impacting football within the Further Education sector, the BUCS football development team work across core areas of participation and workforce.

Working through and with BUCS Accredited Universities (a similar scheme to Accredited Clubs), they support students and staff to deliver quality football experiences across the Higher Education sector. 

Over the years there have been many leadership programmes for students co-ordinated by The FA, through BUCS and other stakeholders, many of which have been focused on supporting students to access and participate in on the pitch roles such as refereeing and coaching.

The FA Emerging Club Leaders Pilot scheme looks to provide similar leadership opportunities which were focussed on off-pitch roles; to give students a taste of being a club leader and to provide clubs in the programme with additional personnel to help achieve their strategic objectives, as well as The FA’s Thriving Community Clubs strategic driver to support the current and future generation of club leaders, coaches and referees.

Following collaboration with stakeholders the programme has been developed and is being piloted during the 2024/25 academic year.

Four regions across the country were targeted for this programme based on trusted relationships that already exist between BUCS and their Accredited Universities. 

National League System clubs in those localities were identified with minimum criteria being that they have completed a club assessment and are working with a Club Consultant on the FA Club Programme.

Following an invitation sent to 17 clubs, 13 clubs competing in the National League System (NLS) expressed interest in participating in the pilot and to date, 31 students have been placed at these clubs, in one of the 6 roles we have promoted. These 6 roles are as follows:

• Media & Marketing Officer
• Facilities Development Officer
• Club & Community Engagement Officer
• Fan Experience Officer
• Volunteer Officer
• Fundraising & Sponsorship Officer

These placements will really help us generate some insight in order to consider whether and how the pilot should continue for future seasons. 

Over the last few weeks, FA Club Consultants who are already working with the clubs involved in the pilot, have facilitated induction meetings between students and club leaders.  The students have committed to volunteering around 5 hours a week at the NLS club right through until the end of the football season (and potentially beyond). 

During the season, students on this pilot programme have and will be provided with learning and development opportunities to support their own development, their understanding of club leadership and to maximise the impact they will have whilst volunteering at the clubs.

To date, students have participated in a masterclass focused on running a club and this knowledge was developed further at a face-to-face event held earlier this month at FC United of Manchester (see picture).

At the face-to-face day, students participated in 4 sessions which were led by industry experts from The FA and BUCS. Sessions included:

• Becoming an Emerging Club Leaders
• Thriving Community Clubs
• How to Grow a Club, and
• Personal Development & Volunteering

Feedback from the day was hugely positive.

The pilot programme will include robust monitoring and evaluation throughout, with insight generated from the students and the clubs.  This will be really beneficial as The FA and BUCS consider if and how to scale up the programme in the future.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Emerging Club Leaders programme, please contact Laura Smith, FA Club Consultant (Workforce Lead) on [email protected].