Manchester United's Friends Of The Academy Initiative For Football Coaches

In 2022, Manchester United launched their ‘Friends of the Academy’ initiative to support the local football community by sharing their resources and knowledge with coaches, schools, junior clubs and young players across the North West of England.

At the time of the launch, the club said that the initiative, led by Manchester United’s Emerging Talent Programme which is run by Jennifer Mildenhall, was to provide a chance for local clubs and schools to directly engage with Manchester United and learn more about the way they do things.

Nick Cox, Head of Manchester United Academy said “The Friends of the Academy initiative is yet another aspect of our programme that is specifically designed to support the local football ecosystem. Involving and engaging with our community is fundamental to everything that we do at the Academy, and we are therefore hugely committed to our presence and activity across the region. This unique opportunity to share resources and expertise allows us to create a wider coaching network that will directly benefit and develop junior football across the North West."

“We hope that many coaches, schools and clubs take this fantastic opportunity to directly learn and engage with our world-leading youth development system.

Football coaches of any level can register to access development opportunities including coaching clinics, guest speaker events and access to accredited FA Continuous Professional Development hours.

Matt and Tony are both involved in coaching and running their kids' football and futsal teams and both have attended sessions both in person, at United Cliff training ground or Carrington training complex, as well as online. They've found all the events to be a invaluable resource as well as providing the opportunity to meet and share ideas with other coaches. 

If you're interested in getting involved and attending future events, you can sign up here for Friends of the Academy.