0.012% Life after football

Academies of their very essence are a good idea. Get the best players, give them the best coaches in the best potential environment. The problem is that the ills of senior football – greed, opportunism, the stockpiling of talent unnecessarily for commercial gain – are seeping down into junior football. That's what's happening in the academies of the major clubs where boys are going in, they're sucked into the system. They're taken over by the dream. But, realistically, all they would do is sit there and wait for a chance that will never come.

This video documentary aims to show the institutional issues surrounding the football academy system. To do this I (Steven Berry) talk to people that have experienced it first-hand. During these interviews, we will ask an array of topics starting from their original motivations behind football, why they eventually had to leave, and how ethical is the current system in the UK. Many of these players dedicate everything to football once entering the academy system seeing it as their future. I feel this could be very detrimental to players mental health after leaving the game. To help me learn more about the subject we also get the opinion of a leading sports psychologist. This documentary takes a look at these players emotionally to see how this process may have affected their mental health, love for football and even their future career goals now.

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