When we created ICFA in 2010, we felt there was something missing in the way football was being offered to children. There were traditional football clubs, where children joined a team and played competitively, and there were academies aimed at identifying and developing elite players. There wasn’t much in between for a child who simply wanted to learn how to play football properly.
ICFA came out of two quite different backgrounds.
Coach Morgan came from a football background in the United Kingdom, having played and coached at many different levels, both formally and informally. Football had always been a major part of his life — he lived and breathed the game. Talent was a natural phenomenon for many of the players around him, and football prowess was expected.
His Sport Science degree and FA coaching experience added another dimension to that background. They developed his interest in how football skills are actually learned and, particularly, how they can be taught to younger children. He recognised that some skills often treated as either innate, or as something that could only really be taught once children were older, could in fact be developed much earlier if they were introduced in the right way.
That became an important part of his desire to coach. Rather than simply waiting for talent to emerge, there was an opportunity to teach children the building blocks of the game from a very young age and give them the chance to become competent players through good instruction.
The other side of the partnership came from a very different background: an elite boarding school environment with a strong emphasis on both academic excellence and sport, where sport was taught formally in an extremely ordered environment and there was regular and intense daily exposure to a wide range of sporting activities.
That meant experiencing sports that didn’t always come naturally and, importantly, being taught how to play them. The process was often the same: being shown what to do, practising and gradually becoming more competent.
From those very different experiences came a shared belief that ability isn’t fixed and that confidence can grow when something is taught properly.
That became central to the way we designed ICFA.
We wanted children to have access to good football coaching without needing to join a competitive team or already demonstrate elite potential. But the idea was always broader than football itself.
We wanted children to learn football properly, while also having a positive first experience of sport. If a child feels embarrassed, excluded or pressured, they may decide they’re simply “not good at sport” and become reluctant to try again — not only football, but tennis, swimming, skiing or anything else unfamiliar.
We never wanted a child’s first lesson from sport to be that “sport wasn’t for them”. We wanted them to understand that not knowing how to do something is a normal part of beginning.
That’s why we’ve always aimed to create an inclusive environment where children can learn, make mistakes and improve without feeling judged. Inclusion isn’t just about allowing everyone onto the field; it’s about making sure every child feels they belong there.
Learning how to play
When children first come to football, there’s often a lot they don’t know: how to control the ball, pass, dribble, shoot or understand where to move. Some pick things up quickly; others take longer. Both are completely normal.
With instruction, practice and encouragement, the game gradually starts to make more sense. Children become more coordinated, more confident and more able to take part — and football becomes more enjoyable.
That process shows them that ability isn’t fixed.
Skills can be learned.
Giving children the tools to enjoy football
Football is a game, and we believe it’s best enjoyed with other people.
The skills we teach at ICFA are there to help children take part. A good first touch builds confidence. Passing helps them play with teammates. Understanding movement and space helps them become involved rather than simply following the ball.
Technique matters, but it isn’t the end point. What matters is giving children enough confidence and competence to enjoy football at ICFA, at school, with friends, in the park, at a local club or in an informal game years later.
Some of the most valuable football happens outside formal training: passing with a parent, having a kickabout or inventing a game with friends.
All of those are good outcomes.
Taking that confidence into other sports
We hoped the experience of learning football would extend beyond football itself.
Later, a child might be invited to ski, play tennis, try padel, go sailing or attempt something completely new. They may not be good at it immediately, but we hope they understand that being a beginner doesn’t mean being incapable.
They’ve already learned that someone can teach them the basics, that practice leads to improvement and that unfamiliar activities become more enjoyable as they start to feel more natural.
A child who discovers that trying something new can be safe, enjoyable and rewarding is more likely to try again. They begin to see not knowing, learning and improving as a normal part of the process.
And it doesn’t stop with sport
We don’t think this confidence applies only to physical activity.
Once children have experienced learning a skill from the beginning, they gain a broader understanding of their own ability to learn. The lesson becomes: just because I can’t do something now doesn’t mean I can’t learn how.
That might apply to a language, an instrument, cooking, technology, school or work. It changes the question from “Can I do this?” to “How do I learn to do this?”
For us, that’s one of the bigger ideas behind ICFA. Football gives us a practical way to show children that competence can be developed. Once they understand that about one thing, it becomes easier to believe it about the next.
Not every sport needs to go somewhere
Children’s sport can sometimes become very focused on outcomes: making a team, moving up a level, becoming competitive or pursuing a career.
Those goals may matter to some children, but they aren’t the only measure of whether learning a sport has been worthwhile. A child doesn’t need to become a competitive swimmer, tennis player or footballer for the experience to have value.
Sometimes success is simply spending time doing something enjoyable. They’ve been outside, moved their bodies, learned something new, laughed, played and spent time with friends.
That experience doesn’t have to lead anywhere in particular to have been worthwhile. It can simply have been a good part of their childhood and one of the many ways they learned to enjoy being active.
Sport is play
We’ve always wanted to preserve the idea that sport should be enjoyable.
It helps children become fitter, stronger and more coordinated, but it’s ultimately just play. Children run, compete, laugh, make mistakes and try again. They learn what their bodies can do and discover that unfamiliar things become easier with practice.
They learn that being a beginner is normal and that mistakes are part of learning — lessons that remain useful well beyond the football field.
What success looks like to us
We are often asked, ‘How do you rate children on their success as they progress through the program?’ Obviously, we’re pleased when children become strong football players, progress to clubs or discover that they love the game. But that has never been our only definition.
Over the years, we’ve watched children who came through ICFA grow up and move into all sorts of different career areas, many of them having nothing at all to do with football or even sport.
We can’t know exactly what part their time with us played in the people they became. But we hope that somewhere in that experience they learned that it’s all right not to know how to do something at the beginning, that skills can be learned, and that there’s value in being willing to try.
If that confidence stayed with them when they encountered something new later in life, then we think ICFA has done something worthwhile.
We also want parents to understand the role we believe football and sport can play in that wider process. Of course we want children to develop as footballers, but we’d like parents to see what happens on the field as part of something broader too: learning a skill, dealing with mistakes, becoming more confident, working with other people and discovering what they’re capable of.
If parents understand what we’re trying to achieve in that wider sense, then we’re all approaching the child’s experience from the same place. Football is what we teach, but it can also be one of the many ways children learn about themselves and about learning itself.