Welcome to Soccer 101, the podcast in which we try and explain various phenomena in and around this beautiful game of ours.

It's a slightly different approach today as we settled a score with a threesome. I'm Ryan Bailey and also here is Joe Lowry. Say hello Joe. Hello Joe. Wait, is that what I'm supposed to do? Yeah, and he also here Graham Rutherland, say hello Joe. Hello Joe and Ryan, I'm confused. I think we did this right? Anyway, I think that's how you intro podcast. I think we just about got there. But it's myself, Ryan Bailey, Joseph Lowry, and Mr. Graham Rotherman here. We are here to tackle gentlemen. A question that has been sent to us at the 101 team by Mr. Eric Stelter. Joe, would you like to hear that question right now? Oh, I would love to hear that question, Mr. Bailey. Here it comes. Eric says, we hear about how important academies are,

both domestic and abroad, but I don't think a lot of us understand how they actually work, says Eric.

I believe it is like a Harry Potter school for soccer where young players go to different classes,

such as corner taking and throw-ins, but what is the actual experience? That sounds amazing.

Of joining an academy and being part of one. That does sound a lot more fun than probably what an academy is. I'll continue with Eric's question. Are players paid to move to that city? Do they just

join for occasional practices? I feel like most American soccer fans don't really know what goes

on in an academy or how it helps players,

and I include myself in this, says Eric.

Gentlemen, this is an excellent question about something maybe we take for granted that

there is a level of knowledge about.

But academies is the question here, why we have them, what they do, and what the kids and

young teenagers who enter those academies actually

get up to on a day-to-day basis. So I'll start off, Jens, by sort of laying the groundwork here

of why we have academies. And I think, Graham, the simplest way I could put it, the simplest analogy

I could give is that growing your own vegetables is cheaper than buying in the store in the long

run if you have the infrastructure to do so. Does that sound, do you get what I'm saying with that

analogy there? Yeah, absolutely. I think that is primarily the function of academies, but it should also

be said that there are, particularly in European football and European competition, there are

quotas

that clubs have to fulfil where you have to have a certain number of homegrown players

and it gets a little bit murky in that it's to do with how many years a young player spends

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