Summer games for North Wales football academies launches next month

It has been a frustrating 12 months plus for young footballers all across the country, with Covid putting paid to so much action.

However, a new project designed to keep North Wales academies busy over the summer will kick off next month.

Following the disruption to the 2020/2021 season due to the coronavirus pandemic, the NWA Summer Games has been compiled, including 10 North Wales academies.

The NWA Summer Games will see a simple nine weeks of guaranteed fixtures, with all sides playing each other once over set weekends across all age groups which will include U8s to U19s teams.

The scheme will continue to follow the FAW Academy format of games which will see U8s and U9s will play 5v5, U10s and U11s 7v7, U12s and U13s 9v9 with U14s to U19s 11v11.

The format has been compiled and will be run by Academy Directors of the ten respective clubs including;
• Connah’s Quay Nomads (Jay Catton)
• Newtown AFC (Craig Williams)
• Llandudno Town (Sam Stockley)
• Flint Town United (Daniel Bell)
• Caernarfon Town (David Cavanagh)
• Prestatyn Town (Ryan Turner)
• Bala Town (Carwyn Edwards)
• The New Saints (Jason Brindley)
• Colwyn Bay (Matt Sampson)
• Cefn Druids (Jayson Starkey)

Each weekend will see whole academies simply play one opposition side over all age groups over a single weekend.

This is a non-competitive program for U8s to U11s mini phase age groups, with a tournament/league format for the youth phase sides fixtures from U12s to U19s.

The key focus as always being on player development, the NWA Summer Games will allow clubs to move players up and down age groups if they wish, which will hopefully aid players development and also ensure all games are adhered to and completed.

The nine-week program will run from the weekend Saturday 15th May until the weekend Saturday 10th July, with age groups continuing from the 2020/2021 campaign.

The aim of the collaborative Summer games program across the ten North Wales academies is to simply allow all players to have a guaranteed set of fixtures for over the Summer months, which all can enjoy, participate in and most importantly progress as players and people.

Teams that are home will host at their facility
U8s to U11s Fixtures on the Saturday
U12s, U13s and U14s on the Sunday

Teams that are away will host at their facility
U15s, U16s and U19s on the Sunday.

For all the details log on to the website: https://nwasummergames.co.uk/news/nwa-summer-games-launches/