Tag: schools football

featured, Schools' Football Week

THE SCHOOLS’ FOOTBALL WEEK BIG COMPETITION

The English Schools' FA

Design your own England shirt with the SFW Big Competition

The English Schools’ FA and Pro:Direct Sport are delighted to launch the first ever Schools’ Football Week Big Competition, where pupils from schools participating in Schools’ Football Week activity from the 5th – 11th February 2024, are invited to Design an England shirt, using the SFW template we have created.

During Schools’ Football Week, it’s as important to us to bring football to the pitch as well as the classroom and we hope that the SFW Big Competition will inspire your pupils to draw on their design skills, flex their creativity and use their imagination to create their perfect England shirt.

The Competition

We have created a SFW Big Competition worksheet with shirt template for you to download and print for your pupils. All they need to do is let their imaginations run wild, put pen (or pencil) to paper and create their dream England shirt.

SFW-Big-Competition-Shirt-Design-TemplateDownload

The competition opens on Monday 5th February and closes on Friday 16th February. Once you have your designs, please scan them and email them to [email protected] for the shortlisting process.

Top Tip: You might want to hold your own competition within school to pick your top 3 entries to submit for the competition!

For the winners

A winning design will be selected from one primary school pupil and one secondary school pupil. The winning entries will not only be shared across the English Schools’ FA and Pro:Direct social channels, but the winning designs will be made into genuine football shirts and presented to the pupils that created them. Using Pro:Direct’s creative software, they will recreate the designs and make them into a SFW shirt for two lucky school pupils to be proud of. The winning pupils will also receive a £250 Pro:Direct voucher to spend via the Pro:Direct website.

Winners will be announced on or around the 28 February 2024.

Good luck to all those who take part – and don’t forget to post your pupils’ progress and tag #schoolsfootballweek as they begin their designs!

ESFA Internationals

England U18 Schoolboys – Official Squad Announcement 2023/24

The English Schools' FA

The ESFA is delighted to announce the 18 players chosen to represent the England U18 Schoolboys for the 2023-2024 season, following the final Pro:Direct Trial this weekend

North Squad
South Squad

The ESFA concluded their search for the best schools’ footballers that England has to offer yesterday (Sunday 10th December) with the final England U18 Schoolboys’ Pro:Direct trial taking place at Castle Vale Stadium in Birmingham. The successful players have progressed through a rigorous selection process from October until December to be finally selected to represent their country.

The players were first nominated by their County Secretaries to attend regional trials that led to the construction of four regional squads, the North, Midlands, South East and South West. These squads then went head to head in step two of the trials process and formed the North and South squads that travelled to Castle Vale yesterday, for the final stage of the process.

Making the final stage of these trials is a huge personal achievement for all the players who attended and something for them to be proud of.

Congratulations to the following players –

Squad NumberPlayer’s NameCounty
1James TaylorBedfordshire
2Archie ElsdonShropshire
3Joshua ThynneDurham
4Deacon SmalleyMerseyside
5James SloanDurham
6Archie SmallCleveland
7Toby NelsonHampshire
8Ashton HoulahanDurham
9Jude EntwistleLancashire
10Oliver SpicerBuckinghamshire
11Arran CocksLeicestershire & Rutland
12Macara McNulty – HartnettShropshire
13Ryan JohnsonDurham
14Charlie WoodingDorset
15Kai AdamsShropshire
16Joseph SmartOxfordshire
17Freddie HadenSomerset
18Jonah ScuttStaffordshire
James Taylor
Ryan Johnson
Charlie Wooding
Joseph Smart
Toby Nelson
Oliver Spicer
Freddie Haden
Deacon Smalley
Macara McNulty – Hartnett
Archie- Elsdon
Jude Entwistle
Jonah Scutt
Aaran Cocks
Archie Small
Joshua Thynne
Ashton Houlahan
James Sloan
Kai Adams

This final squad will first get together in February for their preparatory training camp, thanks to inspiresport, where they will be presented with their brand new England shirts. The boys’ competitive fixtures will come in the form of the SAFIB Centenary Shield, which is played from February until April 2024. The home nations and the Republic of Ireland will compete for the prestigious Centenary Shield, with this season’s England team hoping to retain the shield which was shared with Northern Ireland in 22/23.

The ESFA would like to once more congratulate all the players that were put forward for England Schoolboys’ trials this season and wish those players that haven’t been selected the very best of luck with the rest of their season and footballing careers.

For any media enquiries, please contact Jacob Blades on [email protected] for more information

Photo credit: 353 Photography