The nation's leading clubs joined together at Hampden Park this week to share ideas around youth development, as the Scottish FA hosted the first International Coach Conference.
Through the conference, the Scottish FA were able to highlight experiences from across the international stage and create a platform to discuss ideas to help continually improve and develop the nation's top talents.
The event provided the platform for Scotland's international coaches to reflect on successes and challenges from the last year, as well as highlight some important themes around their upcoming matches in 2023 to an audience from across the Club Academy Scotland (CAS) structure, from youth team coaches all the way up to Heads of Academy.
It marked the first in a series of events aimed at increasing collaboration between clubs and the national youth teams. While this specific conference was targeted at clubs in CAS, similar events to support the girls and women’s game are being planned for later in the year.
Each of the Scotland national youth team head coaches delivered a review of their 2022 matches, while Performance School manager Brian McLaughlin reflected on ten years of the Scottish FA JD Performance School programme. Scottish FA Head of Coach Education and Development Greig Paterson also presented an overview of new Scottish FA coaching initiatives for the coming year.
The clubs were also treated to a Q&A from Scotland Head Coach Steve Clarke and Head of High-Performance Graeme Jones. Performance Analysis Manager Mark McKenna then delivered an analysis session surrounding goals that various Scotland sides are scoring and conceding.
Andy Gould, Scottish FA Chief Football Officer: "The purpose of hosting this event early in the year is to open the doors to coaches who have been working at Club Academy Scotland level, to allow them to see the work that we do when their players are with the national team.
"For us, in 2023 we want to create more of these opportunities for collaboration across the player eco-system. We've got plans to do dedicated Head of Academy events, as well as post-camp debriefs so we're certainly ramping up the amount of contact that we will have with coaches in order to make sure that we provide them with experiences that can help them improve their players.
"It's about working together collectively to support the development of a young player, who can hopefully realise their ambition of being the very best, because that's what can help Steve Clarke and our national team perform at the highest level."
Brian McLaughlin, Performance School Manager and Scotland Under-17 Head Coach: "Despite there being lots of different clubs, there was no rivalries in the room. We were all sharing knowledge to help develop the young player of tomorrow.
"Looking back at 2022, it was a successful year in terms of the numbers of games played by all our age groups and we witnessed a fantastic campaign for the 2005 age group in particular, who qualified for the UEFA European Under-17 Championship in Israel.
“That was a remarkable achievement, considering we were the youngest team in Europe by a considerable distance and everyone in the room should be proud of that achievement.
"Moving forward from that, into 2023, it's about implementing positive changes to help our young players score more goals and defend the box better, and this collaborative approach through events like the International Coach Conference will be crucial."