Register your interest to be a part of Albion's girls' academy

Our girls’ academy is a football academy for girls aged between 11 and 16. We are pleased to be providing fantastic opportunities for young female footballing talent within the Sussex region and beyond.

The Girls’ Academy is based in a brand-new facility at the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre in Lancing, West Sussex. The facilities include high-quality pitches, a gym, medical centre, state-of-the-art changing area and recovery facility. The academy is also rated Tier 1+ by The FA for the 2022/23 season.

As part of the academy, players will experience quality technical coaching, strength and conditioning programmes, physiotherapy and wellbeing care, alongside support around their education. We believe in the holistic development of each player, and utilise a wide range of support staff to ensure this is the case.

We are now looking for talented footballers to become part of our girls’ academy programme and currently have limited spaces available in each of our four age groups.

• WU12s and WU14s will play fixtures in a local Charter Standard boys (mixed) league as well as fixtures vs other RTCs / academies at various points of the season
• U14s will play fixtures in a varied programme consisting of fixtures vs other RTCs / academies and boys’ teams
• U16s will take part in an organised league programmes against other academies, the FA Youth Cup and against boys’ teams

Please note that the table below illustrates a typical training and fixture week. Please note that these times aren’t yet set for the 2023/24 season.

We also hold professional development training weeks during school holidays and will be taking all players on a pre-season tour in July / August 2023.

We are hoping to hold trials in early June 2023 and would like to invite you to register your interest in these now. You can find the link to the expression of interest form here.

We will then contact you with the dates of the trial programme in due course. 

Please note – there are set criteria that must be met for your application to be considered; not all applications will be invited to trial. If you are not successful in obtaining a trial with the girls' academy, we encourage you to seek opportunities with Albion in the Community who run a series of advanced football programmes.

Criteria

Age groups are as follows:

To apply for the WU12 and WU13 age groups, players must:

• Be currently playing for an academy, former RTC, a grassroots team or their school
• Live within 90 minutes of the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre in Lancing (BHAFC Training Ground, BN15 9FP)
• Have an English parent or grandparent or have been educated in England for at least five consecutive years

To apply for the WU14 or WU16 age groups, players must:

• Have previous experience of playing for, or currently play for, an FA Regional Talent Club, FA Advanced Coaching Centre or in boys’ football, or through a club recommendation
• Live within 90 minutes of the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre in Lancing (BHAFC Training Ground, BN15 9FP)
• Have an English parent or grandparent or have been educated in England for at least five consecutive years
• International or regional experience is desirable

If, after reading the above, you think applying to join the girls’ academy is a good fit for you and your young player, and you would love to be a part of Brighton & Hove Albion, please register your interest by completing the expression of interest application form by clicking here.

The deadline for the expression of interest application to be submitted is Monday 22 May 2023. We look forward to hearing from you.