FC St. Pauli is ending its cooperation with consultants in its youth ranks

Second division football club FC St. Pauli will no longer work with player advisors and agencies in its youth training center (NLZ). The club announced on Tuesday that this regulation applies to all underage players in the NLZ. FC St. Pauli is thus clearly positioning itself against the capitalization of youth football, the statement said. In the future, the club from Hamburg only wants to conduct contract discussions with the player or his private environment.

“We rely on a cooperative dialogue with the players and their families and personal environment,” said NLZ head Benjamin Liedtke. In addition, FC St. Pauli rejects external, commercial individual training in the NLZ. This is not a decision against consultants in football in general, said Liedtke: “It is more about putting the focus in youth football on the personal environment of the players, not on agencies and the market.”

“Make players sustainably better”

The neighborhood club is pursuing its own concept in the youth sector called “Rebellution – a different youth football is possible”. This also includes a comprehensive educational concept to support the players holistically. Liedtke: “We make players better in the long term and work with them to develop the skills to be able to compete in competitive sports.”

“The topic is being discussed critically in all football committees, and most clubs have also recognized the problem,” said St. Pauli sports director Andreas Bornemann to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”: “We want to take the first step now and hope that others will follow our example According to NLZ leader Liedtke, the club is aware that this could possibly lead to dissatisfaction among player advisory agencies.

Pirmin Clossé Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 8 Daniel Theweleit Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 12 A comment from Anno Hecker Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 21