Poland's 'Young Eagles' set to soar

Hosts Poland did not make it through the group stage of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, but the Polish Football Association (PZPN) is striving to ensure future national teams will be a force at youth and senior levels.

Now in its 17th year, PZPN youth tournament, 'Z Podwórka na Stadion' (From the Backyard to the Stadium) is helping to build momentum for the future. The 2007 edition involved 16,000 players aged seven to 12; the most recent edition involved 320,000. Napoli stars Arkadiusz Milik and Piotr Zieliński both featured in previous editions, as did current Poland U21 captain Tomasz Kędziora.

Poland celebrate a goal at the U21 finals©AFP

Through the Grassroots Charter, funded by UEFA's HatTrick programme  the PZPN has developed many initiatives to develop the game; with 'Z Podwórka na Stadion' being one such example. UEFA's GROW initiative is also enabling the PZPN to focus on key areas to develop. UEFA GROW supports national associations in optimising football's full potential in a strategic and systematic manner by using fact-based research, market intelligence and industry experts to build strategic plans for growing the game.

"More people are signing up every year, and we are also getting increasing numbers of girls," said PZPN head of grassroots Magdalena Urbańska. "For the final stage of the tournament, each of the country's 16 regions has sent four teams in two different age categories – a boys' team and a girls' team. And when registrations opened last autumn, 38% of the people signing up were girls. That's incredible."

Girls' participation has shot up in recent years©Sportsfile

The competition has attracted sponsorship from some of Poland's biggest companies, and during the most recent edition of the event, the tournament was mentioned over 11,000 times in the Polish media. This years finals, staged in late April in Warsaw, involved 754 kids playing for 64 teams, making it the biggest children's football tournament in Europe, in terms of participants and budget.

"People come from all over the country for these finals – some from far away, from small towns out in the countryside," Urbańska explained. "The association pays for their travel and hotels, with many players visiting the capital for the first time. Emotions run high; it's about far more than football, but the most important thing is that the youngsters have fun and carry on playing after the competition is over."

The PZPN is committed to getting more players involved at youth level, with a particular focus on reaching out to the significant numbers of children who are not registered with clubs, and do not play in any formal structure. Bringing these players in from the cold would increase official participation levels, which in turn could lead to more sponsorship opportunities.

PZPN president Zbigniew Boniek leads two girls' teams©Sportsfile

In tandem with the 'Z Podwórka na Stadion' competition, the PZPN has established a network of 'Young Eagles' academies for children aged six to 11 to enhance football's popularity. "We have opened 25 academies in the last two years, and we hope to make it to 35 in the near future," said PZPN general secretary Maciej Sawicki. "Children take part in talent-spotting days, with the best players selected to train at the academies. This allows us to supply clubs with good players, and everything is paid for by the association."

The PZPN discovered that most of the children who joined the academies had not previously been training regularly, and their skills have been enhanced significantly by access to coaching, a situation which should ensure a steady flow of talented youngsters for the nation's clubs in the future. The U21 finals may not have brought triumph for Poland, but with the PZPN's grassroots work paying dividends, the current 'Young Eagles' may fly higher.