Scout's Honour

Since the UEL Final in Hamburg last week, I have been in Liechtenstein for the U17 European Championships. It has been an interesting experience, largely due to my first taste of life in Liecht and at an U17 tournament. I have to admit that I knew very little about the country before arriving, but after two runs of 8km and 7km, I’ve covered the entire country pretty much. Everything is 15 minutes away – it is a little bizarre, but very handy when one has to travel between venues and hotels. Switzerland is 15 minutes away. Austria is 15 minutes away. I virtually ran through three countries in two of my runs – I have to admit that I felt like I was a hard core long distance runner even if it was only 7-8km.

The event itself is a fantastic tournament and it is great to see the stars of tomorrow performing against each other. I spent some time with the players and coaches before the tournament began, and while there are unquestionably some cheeky characters, on the whole, they were serious about their football and preparing for life as a professional player. This is almost certainly the biggest event of their short careers, and so everybody is determined to impress.

Similarly with the Youth Hockey tournaments, and most likely most youth tournaments in most team sports, what has caught my eye the most has been the huge number of scouts attending the matches. They are everywhere. I spent some time with an agent at the World Hockey Championships last year. He was scouting young European players, trying to identify future clients. He was one of hundreds of scouts and agents trying to charm players to either become clients, or join their team. Imagine one piece of really good bread made at the best bakery you can imagine, just laying in the middle of a big field. One bird will find it first, but it won’t be long before word has spread and hundreds of birds are scrapping over the same piece of bread. Usually the biggest most powerful bird will be victorious unless a cunning craftier bird who may be smarter and faster can nip in ahead of them. That’s the life of agents and scouts.

I have given plenty of consideration to both areas as potential future activities that I may get involved with. Analysing players and matches is something I enjoy and I am good at doing it. I am confident as far as that is concerned. What I do doubt however is being able to dive in ahead of the other 200 vultures to snare my guy. It is not in my personality and I doubt whether I could be that effective without being so brash and bold as so many of them are. I sense these are not professions where nice quiet guys – I’m not claiming to fit that category neither (!) – can be successful and prominent. It is cut throat to say the least and seeing a couple of scouts at this event and the methods they employed, I would not find that overly enjoyable.

The other thing which sprung to my mind the more time I spent with the players was just how young they are. These guys are anywhere between 15 and 17 years old and it is easy to forget that they are just kids. One or two are valued at millions already, and they have scouts desperately trying to get their phone numbers, meet their parents, tracking their movements. I would guess some of them are unaware of the extent of what actually goes on, but it is a sign of the times when one can see the lengths some scouts go to.

One scout in particular was complaining about how they can only go for players once they are 16 years old, and compared them to tennis players or musicians who could move to the States or Spain for better coaching or opportunities. He also complained at the amount of compensation clubs must play if they do snare a talent – around half a million pounds. His argument was ridiculously lop-sided and irrational, and I would be fascinated to know the view of his club if the roles were reversed and big clubs were constantly hawking around the best players of his team that they have invested so much time, money and effort in.

I read a great article about the migration of young European hockey players – whether they should stay in their respective countries or move to North America at an early age. The one resounding outcome of that report was that the smaller European nations were suffering badly because of the situation. If a kid stays, he receives a lower level of coaching but perhaps more ice-time. If he moves, he may receive better coaching, but it less likely to gain as much on ice experience. Financially, there is no comparison, and that often dictates the younger players to be tempted to North America. What it does mean however is that those players who remain in Europe are not exposed to the quality needed to push their game on and the leagues in turn remain at a lower quality – and then in turn are less likely to produce top quality players in future generations. For those players that leave for North America, they are replaced by cheap and poor alternatives, often ageing North Americans in the twilight of their careers. A similar scenario can be seen in football. If we take the best players out of the Czech Republic for example, how can we expect more players to emerge at a high level?

I cannot fault the kids for chasing their dreams and securing their financial futures. I cannot fault the clubs for chasing the best players. I cannot fault the scouts and agents for ultimately doing their jobs. I do not like however some of the ethics and morals of scouts and agents which are borderline and whose actions are often against the rules. This is something that can be monitored better by the authorities. I know if I was a parent of one of these boys, I would certainly be more in favour of those scouts, clubs and agents who play by the rules and have the best interests of the players at heart. That would be the only way I could play it if I do get involved in scouting or agency, and just hope and pray many parents and players feel the same rather than being sucked into the lure of big bucks.