Cannes conference comes to close

The ninth UEFA Elite Youth Football conference in Cannes has come to a close with a busy final day in which activities and issues at final tournaments, UEFA's youth coaching licence and the future of youth football in Europe were among the items on a packed agenda.

Feedback discussed
The day kicked off with Jim Boyce, the first vice-chairman of the UEFA Youth and Amateur Football Committee, presenting the feedback from Wednesday's discussion groups, which focused on UEFA's youth competitions and problems in youth development. A number of details were covered, including the competitions' format, organisation, age categories and dates, and the relationships between club and country; while youth development matters such as the impact of foreign players, funding and development were also mentioned.

Final issues
There followed three presentations entitled: Final Round Activities and Issues. Dr Jacques Liénard, a member of UEFA's medical committee and president of the anti-doping panel, provided a detailed illustration of the anti-doping programme and injury study, before Jozef Marko of the UEFA Referees' Committee discussed the officiating aspect of final youth tournaments. UEFA Football Education Consultant Robin Russell and Pete Sanderson, uefa.com's Training Ground Project Manager, emphasised the comprehensive coverage such championships receive on the UEFA website and demonstrated the educational resources available on uefa.com's new Training Ground section.

'Bring out talent'
UEFA's Technical Director, Andy Roxburgh, presented an in-depth study of UEFA's Youth Coaching Licence, which will be opened up for member associations to apply for endorsement early next year, and examined the personal and professional qualities required to be a top-level youth coach. He went on to look at how those coaches can be further developed and explained the principles of the UEFA coaching convention before analysing the youth A diploma in its theoretical and practical parts. There followed an explanation of how the assessment works before he concluded by reminding the delegates of the aim of their job: "The talent is inside; we need to bring it out of the players."

Looking ahead
The afternoon session began with a preview from Claudio Negroni of the 2008 UEFA European Under-17 and U19 Championships, where three key changes will be made at the final tournaments. There will be an additional rest day between Matchdays 1 and 2; qualified countries will be permitted to bring an additional two delegation members; and teams can replace a maximum of two sick or injured outfield players. Next came a lively discussion panel involving Jim Boyce, Werner Kern of FC Bayern München and the Football Association of Finland's technical director Jarmo Matikainen – under the title The Future of Youth Football in Europe – which dealt with topics such as the challenges ahead and the panel's hopes for the years to come.

'Debt of gratitude'
Proceedings were brought to a close by a message from the president of the French Football Federation (FFF), Jean-Pierre Escalettes, who was represented by Jean Mézière, president of the FFF's youth football department, on the conference's final day. Mr Escalettes said in his message to delegates: "This has been one of the highlights of my career. I thank UEFA from the bottom of my heart for bringing this major conference to France, and I would like to thank you all for everything you are doing in the field of youth development, our common interest." Jim Boyce added UEFA's thanks to the FFF, the attendees and the contributors, concluding: "We owe everyone here a debt of gratitude for some tremendous contributions. At an event like this, the most important things are that everyone leaves with fresh impetus, happy memories and new friends."