The FAI Emerging Talent Programme helps identify and develop talented young players around the country with a view to helping them progress onto the international stage in due course.

Since September 2014 the programme has been updated to start working directly with our most talented players from a younger age.

Our regional centres which previously catered for Under 15 and Under 16 age groups now start with ten year olds in the U11, U12, U13 and U14 age ranges.

The most talented U15s and U16s will be developed at new Centres of Excellence – 11 of them throughout the country – and in parallel, we will continue working with and investing in the League Emerging talent programmes to ensure that our most talented players are being developed and challenged in an appropriate environment.

Alongside that, plans are underway for the introduction of a national U17 league to compliment the U19 league and strengthen the elite player pathway. Consultation meetings are on-going and it is expected that an expression of interest notice will be released at the beginning of September with the League due to get underway in August 2015.

The Pathway will now be: