Bayern Munich to scrap U9 and U10 teams
Written by Simon Austin — May 1, 2020
BAYERN MUNICH have announced they are scraping their Under-9 and U10 teams, meaning entry level to their Academy will be at U11s from the summer of 2022.
The U9s will not run from 2021/22 and the U10s will be defunct from the end of that season.
Holger Seitz, Deputy Sports Director at the FC Bayern Campus, said: “FC Bayern is aware of its social responsibility, especially for the very young footballers in the Munich area and the neighbouring regions.
“With this step, the children should be able to develop longer in their usual environment of the home club without pressure to perform and without additional time.”
Peter Wenninger, Sporting Director for the U9 to U15 age groups, added: "With this step we want to achieve more creative freedom in the leisure time of the very young children, that they also have the opportunity to try other sports.
“Long-term studies have shown that learning different sporting skills and abilities can have a positive impact on everyone's football performance.”
In response, Manchester United Academy Manager Nick Cox tweeted: “If this is true, it will see the continuation of a trend already taken in Swedish Football, US soccer, Rugby. Very interesting.”
In March last year, TGG reported that Manchester City were streaming their U5s into three ability ranges and had an ‘elite’ group.
