NIU football : the road to the elite?

Nationally approved sports education football schools in Sweden exists with a purpose of developing elite football players. Based on a holistic ecological approach the purpose of this study was to investigate what characterizes a successful nationally approved sports education football environment and whether the same success factors applied to both men and female football players. Webb-based surveys were sent out by email to 1266 former nationally approved sports education football pupilswith questions regarding their perceptions of the schools sporting environment. The responses collected from the questionnaire constituted the data for the analysis method. This data was later analysed and various tests were done. The results showed that successful nationally approved sports education football environments in order to produce elite football players have various characteristics;coaches who see and pay attention to the players, their training sessions are adapted to the playersneeds, there is a good community in the training group and the coaches motivate the players to continue their elite investment. The same success factors also seem to apply to both genders but in varying degrees. In conclusion, there are similarities between what the study shows is characteristic fora successful national sports education football environment, and what previous research has shownwhen different successful talent development environments have been examined based on a holistic ecological approach