[Suggestion] FA academy for international youth development

[kandersson]

As a national team manager you could ask the FA to develop a national academy of their own (basically following the successful model of Germany) to help producing and developing young players. This would be a new 'National Team Facility' (FA Academy?) that could be improved in time under multiple aspects (training facilities, scouting/recruitment, presence on national territory), and specific staff to hire (Head of FA Academy, various coaches, physios, scouts). This would result in a new youth team (possibly competing in youth club competitions) made of players between 15-17 years (clubs would poach the best ones in time), with graduates and new intakes every year (quality of youth intakes influenced by level of facilities and NT/country). This feature could add some fun and personality to the international management experience and also follow a real life tendency of youth development in football.

[llDracoll]

The FA overall is very irrelevant in Football Manager. It's like it's a completely separate team, with little to no influence on its own league.

The FA having more influence is something that should happen. For instance (based on what you are suggesting), the FA could have clubs invest more in youth facilities... or even things like changing some minor rules (such as foreign player limits) to give national leagues a reputation boost whenever viable.

Say, in my current save, my sammarinese club San Giovanni has not missed a Champions League / Europa League group stage in the last 8 years (plus two Europa League knockout rounds), all the teams in the league are professional, the league is at 2* of reputation, the national team is 63rd in the world rankings... yet the "up to 7 foreigners in match squad; 11 in league registration" rule is holding the league back. The league quality cannot advance because teams are forced to have a vast majority of terrible sammarinese players, and I've been recently having that problem as well - there are plenty of foreigners that are very tempting to join that I can't sign because I'd have to offload another player - and with the league's reputation, it just can't happen.

[itay.bing]

i've suggested something similar before, apparently the licencing is a problem, especially for league formats and using real or generated FA staff.  

[Neil Brock]

Reviewed so locked.