a day ago
Albion confirm exciting new partnership with leading football academy in Bradford
A FOOTBALL academy from the city has signed an exciting new partnership with local club Albion Sports.
Located in Bradford, 3FC will now offer a pathway into the Lions' U23s side for some of their standout talents.
The two men behind the partnership are George Conway and Sam Mir, who are the lead coaches at 3FC Academy.
The pair have agreed, following discussions with Albion Sports, to also take over as head coaches of the Lions' U23s side in order to create a pathway between 3FC and semi-professional football.
Speaking to the T&A, Conway, who previously signed a professional contract with Huddersfield Town as a player, said: 'At 3FC Academy, we welcome aspiring young footballers from ages 5-18 to come and train and experience an academy level environment, and coaching with us.
'For the younger lads, we have a pathway for them to join Bradford City's Academy, and with our older lads, from age fourteen plus, instead of being unrealistic and throwing them into a professional environment, we wanted to find a way of creating a pathway into semi-professional football.
'Myself and Sam (Mir) have a lot of experience in the semi-professional environment, whether it be coaching or playing, so we thought it would be beneficial to create a local link for our lads.
'That's why we pursued this with Albion.'
Conway added: 'Previously, we didn't have an official link with a semi-professional club for our older boys; instead, we used our contacts within the non-league circle to find our players moves.
'For some of them, going straight into a first team environment was a challenge and perhaps came too soon for them.
'So, the perfect scenario for us was to run a semi-professional club's U23s side, as it would give our lads a better route into men's football.
'After talks with Riz (Mohammed Rizwan), Albion's joint-manager, and the club chairman, they were fully behind this partnership and were happy to let us step in as coaches for the U23s side.'
Sam Mir, George Conway's partner at 3FC, coaching at the academy (Image: Supplied) Reflecting on his discussions with Albion, Conway admitted: 'I know Riz was well aware of 3FC's strong reputation as an academy.
'Given both mine and Sam's links to the game as well, it was clear that we both had the right intentions and plans for this partnership to work.
'So, it's a set to be an exciting partnership and I know the club are fully on board with it.
'We'll be moving the U23s at Albion forward and giving the players the best chance to make that step up into semi-professional football.'
He added: 'The ball is well and truly rolling now; we've had a trial evening last Wednesday and we aim to use the whole of August to continue trialling players for Albion's U23s. So far, we've had 22 players at the trials.
'Me and Sam will continue to coach at 3FC, but the programmes run so smoothly that coaching at Albion will fit really well into our weekly schedules.'
Conway and Mir still have two trialling dates available this month for Albion's U23s, so if you're interested in attending one of the sessions, fill out the form HERE.
To find out more about 3FC Academy, head to this LINK.
