THE POWER IN OUR YOUTH TRAINING

Mission and vision

MISSION

Youth training is a key part of club operations and considered as essential work. We want to be a high quality football institute where talent is given the best possible opportunity to develop. By giving the players this opportunity we want to ensure a maximum through-flow to the first team.
We want to create a motivating, pedagogic and methodically responsible environment in which youth players can develop on a technical sporting and human level and prepare for a career as a professional footballer.

Beerschot sees youth football as an individual sport with a collective nature. We want to maximise the development of the potential that a player possesses. We also believe that everyone should enjoy this process. We also train our trainers as team leaders to strengthen this ambition and optimise the individual development of the player.

PANATHLON DECLARATION

With this declaration we commit ourselves to set a clear code of conduct for all aspects of the pursuit of positive values in youth sport.

We declare that:

  1. WE WILL ACTIVELY PURSUE POSITIVE VALUES IN YOUTH SPORT WITH PERSISTENT EFFORTS AND GOOD PLANNING.
     
    • As regards training and competition, we will pursue four main aims in a balanced manner: the development of motor (technical and tactical) skills, a healthy and safe competitive style, a positive self-image and good social skills. In so doing we will be guided by the needs of the child.
    • We believe that the drive to stand out and win, success and pleasure, and experiencing failure and frustration are integral parts of competitive sport. We will give children the opportunity to experience this and to integrate it (within the structure, the rules and the restrictions of the game) in their performance and we will help them to manage their emotions.
    • We will pay special attention to the leadership and training of children based on models that live up to ethical and humanistic principles in general, and fair play in sport in particular.
    • We will ensure that children are involved in the decision-making process in their sport.
  2. WE WILL CONTINUE OUR EFFORTS TO EXCLUDE ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION FROM YOUTH SPORT.
     

This involves the fundamental ethical principle of equality that social justice and equal opportunities for all require. Late developers, disabled persons and less talented children will be given the same opportunity to play sport, and will be given the same professional guidance as offered to early developers, able-bodied persons and more talented children irrespective of gender, race or culture.

  1. WE ACKNOWLEDGE AND ACCEPT THE FACT THAT SPORT CAN ALSO CAUSE NEGATIVE EFFECTS AND THAT PREVENTIVE AND CURATIVE MEASURES ARE REQUIRED TO PROTECT CHILDREN.
     
    • We maximally promote the psychological and physical health of children by combating deception, drugs, misuse and exploitation, and assist children in overcoming any negative effects of this.
    • We accept that the importance of the social environment of the child and the motivating climate are still underestimated. We will therefore develop, accept and apply a code of conduct with clearly set out responsibilities for the parties involved in the network around youth sport: sports bodies, sports supervisors, parents, educators, trainers, sports managers, sports administrations, doctors, physiotherapists, dieticians, psychologists, top athletes and the children themselves.
    • We strongly recommend creating bodies to monitor this code at the appropriate levels.
    • We support systems for the registration and accreditation of trainers and coaches.
  2. WE WELCOME THE SUPPORT OF SPONSORS AND THE MEDIA, BUT WE BELIEVE THAT THE SUPPORT MUST BE COMPATIBLE WITH THE MAIN OBJECTIVES OF YOUTH SPORT.
     
    • We only welcome sponsorship by organisations and companies when this does not conflict with the pedagogic process, the ethical basis of sport and the main objectives of youth sport.
    • We believe that it is the not only the function of the media to be reactive, but also to be a mirror of the problems of our society, while being pro-active, stimulating, educating and innovating.
  3. WE THEREFORE OFFICIALLY ENDORSE THE 'PANATHLON CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD IN SPORT'.
     

All children have the right:

    • To practice sport
    • To enjoy themselves and play
    • To live in a healthy environment
    • To be treated with dignity
    • To be trained and guided by competent people
    • To take part in training that is suitable for their age, individual pace and possibilities
    • To compete against children at the same level in suitable competition
    • To practice sport in safe circumstances
    • To rest
    • To be given the chance to be a champion, or not become one

All this can only be achieved when governments, sports federations, sports agencies, companies offering sports articles, media, the business world, sports scientists, sports managers, trainers, parents and the children themselves endorse this declaration

VISION

Beerschot youth guides and coaches young footballers from 6 to 19 years of age. We want to attract talented youth players from the region (the city, the outskirts and the province) and offer them the ideal opportunities to develop their talent.

Beerschot youth wishes to use their all-round footballing potential to generate excellent footballers by offering total development with ample attention for a technical training plan, football and study, ethics and educational values.

The technical training plan must be as complete as possible. It includes planning for the tactical, physical, mental and technical development of the player.
The choice of trainers and supervisors must offer the quality required to be able to achieve the objectives above.
The necessary logistical conditions must be created to be able to achieve these objectives.

ACTION PLAN AGAINST RACISM AND DISCRIMINATION

Beerschot is a diverse club with players, trainers and employees with different backgrounds and convictions both in the A-squad and youth scene. Tolerance and respect are important. Beerschot will tolerate no racism and discrimination, and supports the action plans of the UEFA, the Royal Belgian Football Association and the Pro League. Beerschot does the following to ban discrimination and racism from the club and to encourage integration, participation and diversity:
- Beerschot actively commits itself to a large and engaged community in which everyone is welcome and everyone respects each other under the motto ‘we are 13’.
- Beerschot enforces a ban on any form of racism and discrimination in its internal regulations.
- The club organises supporter recruitment activities for youngsters, women and families.
- At home matches the LED boarding and team sheets display messages promoting tolerance and/or against racism.
- Beerschot complies with the regulations on accessibility to the stadium for disabled persons.
- At each home match the club provides 2 attendants to assist and guide disabled persons.
- The club cooperates with the identification and punishment of players and supporters who commit acts of racism or discrimination.
- Beerschot supports the Hernan Losada Foundation that offers assistance to underprivileged young people.
- Besides ex-player and trainer Hernan Losada, the club will use more ex-players and supporters as role models in the fight against racism and discrimination.
- Together with the City of Antwerp, Beerschot has set up a homeless team for underprivileged adults.
- Beerschot teaches the Dutch language to foreign language speaking youth players, parents and supporters.
- The club considers alternative and awareness-raising penalties for players or supporters who have displayed racist or discriminatory behaviour.
- Beerschot cooperates with national awareness-raising activities from the Royal Belgian Football Association and the Pro League to prevent racism and discrimination.
- Awareness-raising activities and banning racism and discrimination are core tasks of community operations.
- Board members and/or the community manager at the club hold consultation with representatives of supporters every two months.

ANTI-DOPING

The use of performance-enhancing drugs is bad for football. They affect the health of sportspersons, while raising performance levels in violation of honest sporting principles.

Performance-enhancing drugs and/or stimulating substances that generally increase performance and/or are harmful to the health are totally prohibited. The substances and methods regarded as performance-enhancing are included in the doping list of the World Antidoping Agency (www.wada-ama.org). Performance-enhancing drugs can occur in all sorts of substances, for example in food and beverages but also in certain medicines and dietary supplements. In some cases the substance is not clearly specified on the label. This can accidently result in a positive anti-doping control with a long suspension as a consequence.

It is therefore important that footballers check beforehand that the dietary supplements or medicines that they want to use contain no performance-enhancing drugs. For more information see the anti-doping line www.dopinglijn.be.