Report promised by SFA to boost homegrown talent

"Giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament's sport and well-being committee, he said the nation's top clubs needed to be more strategic in developing native talent. Maxwell was pushed on player development following a report last year that showed Scotland trails countries like Denmark, Norway and Croatia in giving top-flight game time to players under the age of 21. "We are pushing clubs to be more strategic in developing Scottish players," the head of the governing body said."

""We've got a youth review that will be published soon that will talk about a lot of this and it'll talk about changes we feel we need to make. "Do we have enough players playing in the Scottish premiership right now? No. Can we do more to get Scottish players playing? Yes. "How we do that is the million-dollar question, but clubs need to be more strategic.""

"Maxwell told the committee, primarily set up to look at the welfare of players in the youth academy system, clubs need to get together and look at countries that have been more successful in youth development. "When you look at countries like Portugal, who have got clubs like Benfica, Sporting Lisbon, countries that are really successful at developing their own players, they get them into the first team,""

A youth review will be published soon outlining proposed changes to increase development of homegrown Scottish football players. Top Scottish clubs need to adopt more strategic approaches to nurture native talent and increase first-team opportunities for players under 21. Scotland currently trails Denmark, Norway and Croatia in top-flight minutes for players under 21. Strategic development could include learning from Portugal's clubs like Benfica and Sporting Lisbon, which integrate youth into first teams and sell players abroad for tens of millions, reinvesting proceeds into the football ecosystem. The parliamentary committee focuses on welfare in youth academies and encourages clubs to collaborate on successful development models.

Read at www.bbc.com