BREAKING NEWS: FFE to join Junior Premier League 2020-21
Future Football Elite (FFE) are pleased to announce that we will be joining the Junior Premier League (JPL) for the start of the 2020-21 season.
Joining the newly formed East pision will be teams in the U9, U10, U11, U12 and U13 age groups.
About the Junior Premier League (JPL)
The Junior Premier league launched for the start of the 2011/12 season and was originally conceived by a group of large clubs from the Midlands & Southern England who were interested in developing their players through better coaching and better quality matches.
The league is aimed at clubs who want to develop their players through a ‘best with best’ ethos – the NERF JPL is not aimed at single teams looking for a new challenge.
The ethos of the League is always development before results and the main aim is to give a season’s worth of top quality competitive matches to every team participating.
Why the JPL?
Through our extensive experience at professional football club academy level and grassroots football provision, it is clear that whilst the professional game continues to develop opportunities to provide its young players with a varied and competitive experience. The grassroots game, despite the best efforts of many brilliant volunteers, remains stagnant & therefore the gap between players in local football club academies and those playing local grassroots football will only ever continue to increase, thus making it harder for local players from Norfolk & Suffolk to break into academy level football.
We believe that entering FFE into the Junior Premier League will provide an opportunity of increased competitive fixtures with like-minded players, clubs and coaches. And in turn, help to bridge the gap between grassroots and professional academy football.
In addition to this, it has been suggested that evidence from across the other regions of the JPL, scouts from professional football clubs are more frequently attending JPL fixtures where they are likely to see a higher standard of performer.
FFE Academy Director Dan Goffin said "We have undertaken some self-evaluation of our existing programmes, and the consistent area which always returns is a competitive fixture programme. Whilst in previous times we have been cautious of attempting to set-up to many fixture opportunities to ensure minimum impact on local football. As coaches, we are constantly looking for suitable fixture opportunities for players to show the ability to transfer training learnt techniques and skills into a competitive match play environment. Add to this the very constant stream of conversation from our parents and players around fixtures, it was clear that we needed to seek an alternative to the current provision.
The JPL offers a unique opportunity for players from the local area to experience a more consistent level of competition to support their development both in the short and long term and we are extremely excited and raring to get started. Equally as great is the fact that players who join our Academy Squads for this experience, will still be able to play for their grassroots clubs, should they wish to do so."
When it is safe to do so, we will be hosting open trial events for places in our FFE Academy Squads for the 2020-21 season.
ALL existing FFE players will be invited to trial if they so wish, along with players who are not currently with us.
You can register your interest for a trial here: https://www.futurefootballelite.com/courses/jpl-squad-expressions-of-interest
Further information on the Junior Premier League can be found here: https://www.juniorpremierleague.com/about-the-jpl/
Everyone at Future Football Elite would like to thank the Junior Premier League (JPL) for their invitation to be part of the league next season and beyond and we look forward to a successful partnership supporting local players even more.
And finally, stay tuned to all things FFE over the coming weeks as we announce a further two developments coming your way.