The Why

Every season, The FA National Youth Council creates an Impact Report, but we don’t do it to list activities or tick boxes… we do it because we believe all young people deserve meaningful and inclusive opportunities to develop themselves and positively impact the football community.

The report is a season-long journey that reflects not just what we’ve achieved, but how we worked together to tell the story of how youth voice is shaping football. It’s proof that when young people are given meaningful opportunities, they build diverse networks, grow as powerful leaders, and significantly influence the game at every level. 

Each National Youth Council adds their own chapter to the tale, so the next group of Youth Leaders can build on what’s come before. This report is the 2024/25 team’s chapter, and by sharing it, we’re making sure the team’s legacy carries on.

How We Made an Impact

I like to think of the work like building a house. Each part of the Youth Council added something different, but together, we created a space where Youth Leaders truly belong.

The Community Engagement team laid the foundations by connecting with County FAs (CFAs) and clubs across the country. With 87% of CFAs engaged and 30 Youth Councils established, young people have real spaces in football governance. On top of this, tools like the revised Maturity Matrix and the first steps towards Club Youth Councils made the groundwork stronger and gave the rest of the team something to build on.

Strong houses also need strong walls, and that’s where the Learning and Development (L&D) Team came in. Through the FA Regional Youth Network, the Youth Mentoring Programme, and the biggest, most diverse FA Leadership Academy ever, we invested in people so they could grow into capable leaders, adding to the collective capacity of the Youth Leadership Ecosystem. The L&D Team not only raised the walls but strengthened them too.

The Insight, Inclusion, and Communications team made sure the light could shine through, and the rain stayed out. By having fantastic growth on our social media platforms and expanding the Youth Leadership and Volunteering Community, we gave more young people the chance to be seen and heard, adding windows and doors to our house. Research projects like The FALA Effect then added the roof over our heads, keeping out stormy weather by showing the impact of Youth Leadership.

With that, we built a house. But a house only comes alive once it’s furnished, and that’s what the external events and opportunities we attended were all about. From supporting delivery at The Greater Game Conference and the Rising Leaders residentials, to attending events such as Include Summit and VE Day Celebrations, these enabled us to bring in new ideas, people, and perspectives, allowing us to spread our word and more effectively ensure meaningful representation for under 25s in football. 

For the 2024/25 team, this is the house that we built. But now the keys have been passed to the 2025/26 Youth Council who will make it their own, add in the extensions, and continue to open doors for young people across the game.

This article is just a snapshot. To walk through each room of the house we build in 2024/25, you can read the full Impact Report here: