Study on the State of Youth Football in Bavaria

Innovation and commitment form the foundation for a successful future for youth football in the club and give hope for a bright future! 90 per cent of Bavarian amateur clubs are currently satisfied with the development of youth work in their club. In addition, the qualification programmes offered by the Bavarian Football Association (BFV) score even more positively.

This is the result of a representative study on the promotion of young talent in Bavaria conducted by the Chair of Empirical Educational Research at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) in cooperation with the BFV.

Entitled "Next-gen clubs - the next generation of successful club work", the BFV Study 2025 shows how innovative and committed football clubs succeed in attracting young players and coaches and retaining them in the long term.

Success Through Strategy and Clear Goals

In total, managers from 1,210 Bavarian football clubs who have been in office for an average of 9.5 years took part in the study. At 52 per cent, more than half of the participants in the study were responsible for their clubs as heads of department, while the proportion of coaches was just under ten per cent.

Professor Heinz Reinders, head of the study, emphasises: "Our analyses show that it is precisely those clubs that take a strategic approach and consistently align their youth development work with clear goals that are significantly more successful. These so-called next-gen clubs not only manage to attract new players and volunteers, but also offer them an environment that binds them to the club in the long term."

According to Reinders, it is particularly impressive that these clubs strike a balance between promoting sporting performance and social integration - for boys and girls alike!

Increasing Satisfaction With Their Own Youth Work

The study also shows that the overall satisfaction of Bavarian football clubs with their youth development work has continued to rise. While approval ten years ago was still at 83 per cent, in the current study it has risen again significantly to 90 per cent approval. In particular, the qualification of coaches (94 per cent approval) and the BFV's qualification programmes are now rated much more positively than they were a few years ago.

Here, the approval ratings have improved from 70 to 84 per cent. Dr Christoph Kern, President of the Bavarian Football Association, sees this as an important success: "It is a pleasing confirmation of our joint efforts that more and more clubs are recognising the importance of successful youth development and are also promoting it through targeted measures. The results of the study encourage us to continue along this path and to continue to support our clubs in the best possible way with our training programmes and qualification measures, most of which are free of charge."

Appreciation Culture as a Trump Card

It is also surprisingly clear that traditional measures such as financial incentives play a subordinate role. Only 15 per cent of clubs see this as a suitable measure to convince players or volunteers to get involved in the club. Instead, it is the direct personal approach to parents and young people (89 per cent) that the clubs resort to.

Overall, successful football clubs have a culture of appreciation and long-term retention strategies. Although digital recruitment channels are used, they are still too rarely complemented by sustainable programmes such as school partnerships.

Girls' Football has Some Catching Up to do

However, the situation in girls' football remains critical: despite growing recognition, structural support currently falls far short of expectations. The number of girls' teams has almost halved in recent years. "There is an urgent need for improved framework conditions and targeted support initiatives in order to fully realise the potential of girls' football in Bavaria," explains Heinz Reinders.

The results of the BFV Study 2025 therefore not only provide a well-founded analysis of the current situation, but also clear impulses for all Bavarian clubs to actively engage in the sustainable promotion of young talent.

Christoph Kern summarises: "Football lives from its clubs - and this study impressively shows how strong and sustainable many of our Bavarian clubs already are today. However, it also makes it clear that women's and girls' football in particular needs to be given even more focus - as an association, we can make the offers and do so with campaigns such as #Lasstsiespielen or our BFV-Mädchenmobil, but we also need a cultural change in our clubs."