On the shores of Lake Como, in the shadows of the Alps,
Aston Villa and Chelsea met in a match that would crown one of the two the best
youth team in Europe. After 90 minutes of high-quality football, it was Aston
Villa that came out victorious to become the champions of the second edition of
the NextGen Series.
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| Aston Villa won the second edition of the NextGen Series, beating Chelsea 2-0 in the final in Como |
The brainchild of Mark Warburton, the NextGen Series is a
competition for under-19s teams from around the continent to provide the
opportunity for the young players to match themselves against other elite
European footballers in a competitive environment. The first edition in 2011/12
saw sixteen teams compete in a group stage and knockout phase. The final
matched Inter Milan, who had beaten Sporting Lisbon and Marseille to reach the
last stage, against Ajax, fresh off a 3-0 victory over Barcelona and a 6-0
demolition of Liverpool. In the end, Inter won the match on penalties.
Of the twenty-two players that started in last year’s final,
no fewer than fourteen have gone on to make their full debuts for either Inter
Milan or Ajax – a sign that the teams that these sides are sending out in the
NextGen Series are packed full of future stars. Indeed, Ajax’s Viktor Fischer,
the star of last year’s tournament, has gone on to make his international debut
for Denmark and is seen as one of the brightest talents in European football.
It is a promising sign for English football that three of
the four semi-finalists were Chelsea, Arsenal and Aston Villa. Whilst having an
advantage in terms of numbers – six of the twenty-four teams were English this
season – they have still had to come past some talented teams to reach that
stage. Chelsea eliminated Barcelona and Juventus to reach the semis, Arsenal
beat Inter Milan and CSKA Moscow, while Aston Villa beat Ajax and Olympiacos.
It was also refreshing to see so many British players on the
pitch for the final. Long maligned for simply buying the best youth players for
their academy, Chelsea fielded five English players and two Scottish players in
their starting eleven, while Aston Villa had six English players and five
Irishmen. In other words, 18 of the 22 players were from the British Isles,
while two of the other Chelsea players would also be eligible to play for
England.
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| Viktor Fischer was the star of last season's competition and has since made his international debut for Denmark |
However, one issue that a number of the tournament’s critics
level at it is that it has no form of qualification. Rather the tournament is
simply an invitation-only competition that means that there is no guarantee
that the best youth teams in Europe are actually involved. While this may be a
valid point, it is difficult to point out many teams that should be involved
that are not.
Manchester United and Real Madrid are two big names that are
missing, but they were invited and rejected the opportunity to take part. Among
other obvious missing names are the likes of Bayern Munich, Lyon, Feyernoord,
AC Milan and Porto. Given the recent output of talent, there maybe is also an
argument for more German representation beyond just Dortmund and Wolfsburg.
Nevertheless, there are few teams not involved that could
make a realistic claim to be better than the teams currently involved. Despite
its success, the competition faces an uncertain future.
In December, Michel Platini and UEFA announced that it would
be launching its own version of an U19 Champions League. Sounds reasonable so
far, but it has one major flaw – it will simply involve the same teams as the
senior Champions League.
To me, that seems a fairly poor way of running the
competition. The quality of a club’s senior team often has little correlation
with the quality of its youth academy graduates. Looking at next season’s UEFA
version of the U19 Champions League, it will be missing Aston Villa, the
current NextGen Series champions, and Sporting Lisbon, who finished in third
place in this season’s competition. It will also potentially be missing either
Arsenal or Tottenham, who reached the semi-final and quarter-finals
respectively. It could be missing either
or both of Ajax and PSV, both of whom reached the knockout stages this season.
Indeed, there is a possibility that no fewer than six of the last sixteen of
this season’s NextGen Series would be excluded, purely based on the quality of their
senior team. No reflection on the performance of their youth academy teams.
The objection is not at all to UEFA getting involved. After
all, the hope of the NextGen Series was to grow, find a primary sponsor and
television deal and get the proper footballing authorities involved. The
association with UEFA would certainly give a tournament the prestige and
backing that it needs.
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| Platini and UEFA are set to launch a competitor to NextGen next season |
Rather it comes down to the matter of selection. One has to
question the involvement of the likes of Anzhi in a youth tournament. They have
built their team on the back of offering huge wages and transfer fees to
established players. Their youth team is 11th in the current Russian
U21 league.
Instead, it would seem that the solution would be to find a
similar form of qualification as that for the senior version. Rather than
simply mirroring the teams that are involved in the two tournaments, why not
use the respective youth leagues around Europe to establish a qualification
criteria. The top teams in the English Premier Academy League, the Italian
Campionato Nazionale Primavera, the French U19 Championnat National and the
other various academy competitions around Europe could qualify for the new UEFA
U19 Champions League1.
However, the chances of this happening are remote. Arsenal
have committed themselves to the NextGen Series for next season, but have
admitted that they will struggle to compete in both that and the UEFA version
if they qualify. UEFA are likely to use their power to force clubs to
prioritise their version, meaning the NextGen Series will suffer.
It will simply result in the bigger clubs establishing
themselves as the leading clubs for academy players that want to play in the
biggest youth matches. The best youth players will gravitate to these clubs at
the expense of the likes of Aston Villa and Sporting Lisbon. With the best
youth players, the best players will graduate into the top teams, without the
transfer fees being paid to the smaller clubs – money that is the lifeblood of
many clubs.
As with so many of the changes, it will only help to
entrench the existing top clubs in their position at the expense of the smaller
teams. The idea of providing a platform for young players to challenge
themselves at a continental level is an excellent one. The current format of
the NextGen Series has worked well over the first two editions. However, the introduction
of UEFA into the mix with their grand, but damaging, plan threatens to ruin all
the good work that Mark Warburton and NextGen has achieved thus far.
1 Spain would be an issue given their youth teams play in the full league structure, but a fair qualification criteria could surely be devised
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