TFC Youth Teams

[Pendrith]

Does anybody know how many youth teams TFC will field, what age groups and where will they be playing.

[VPjr]

no announcements have been made as yet but the guy coach they hired from Chicago will be the man heading up the academy. I'm sure that priority #1 is getting through training camp and then they will focus on the academy.

[RJB]

I would suggest that the youth academy should have been set up a long time ago, and should have been the priority. A club is only as succesful as the players that it can develop, and doing so sooner rather than later will make the club more sustainable.

[KAS]

I thought I heard somewhere that there would be five age groups, including a very baffling U-25! Let's face it, nobody considers a 25yr old to be a youth. If you are not ready by then, you never will be. I would like to see four groups, based on FIFA and the Olympics (U14, U17, U20, and U23), but five groups that includes U25 is what I read somewhere a long time ago.

[VPjr]

A U-25 squad would certainly be odd. But, then again, there might be a belief that there is a lot of untapped talent in Ontario who are playing semi-pro soccer or not playing much at all. TFC might feel that they can find 1 diamond in the rough. At worst, an U-25 team could just be an attempt to help the CSL by adding a non-ethnic Toronto-based team to that league.

[MM2]

quote:Originally posted by Pendrith

Does anybody know how many youth teams TFC will field, what age groups and where will they be playing.

For 2007, TFC is only required to field U-15 and U-18 squads, they will probably play an exibition, tournament schedule the first year.

Next year they have to field U14,U15,U16,U18,U20 and U25 teams.

the Red bulls and DC united who already have established youth programs will be playing in the USL Y-League with a full complement of teams. (except U25)
http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news...._mls&fext=.jsp