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How football scouts find young players

Each professional club decides how it finds young players. Watching them play is one route: Lincoln City’s published scouts policy, for example, lists where its scouts go. Some clubs also run development centres. An approach from a scout should come from a club, and you can check it with that club. Lincoln City and Chelsea, whose guidance our trials guide quotes, say they never ask for money for a trial.

This page describes the boys’ academy system that the Premier League and the EFL run for professional clubs in England and the Welsh clubs in the English leagues. Girls’ talent development is organised differently: our guide to the girls’ talent pathway explains it.

This page follows the Premier League’s and the EFL’s handbooks for parents and Youth Development Rules for the 2026/27 season, The FA’s Football Agent Regulations in force from 1 June 2026, and the published policies of the clubs it names. Each club sets its own scouting practice.

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An empty folding chair on the touchline with binoculars and a blank clipboard on its seat, a football beside it, and cones and a small goal on striped grass beyond.

Where scouts watch

Each club decides. Lincoln City’s scouts policy (opens in a new tab) (August 2025) lists “Soccer schools”, “Saturday/Sunday junior schools”, “Inter-County Soccer” and “Tournaments/Festivals not involving other professional clubs”. A club with a Category One, Two or Three academy can also run development centres, which our guide to how football academies work describes.

Checking a scout or an agent

A scout and an agent do different jobs. A scout works for a club and looks for young players that club may want to sign. A football agent represents a player or a club, for example in contract negotiations, and in England must be registered with The FA. The EFL’s 2026/27 handbook (opens in a new tab) describes them this way, and says the services of an agent are not essential for a future in professional football.

The Premier League’s 2026/27 handbook (opens in a new tab) says scouts must be registered with the club, and that you should always confirm a scout’s identity with the club. Lincoln City’s policy says its scouts are issued with and wear a club ID badge stating the current season, with a recent photograph, and must always seek to introduce themselves to the person in charge of the team.

At EFL clubs, the EFL’s 2026/27 Youth Development Rules (opens in a new tab) set league-wide standards. An academy scout must be registered with the EFL and hold a scouting qualification. Each season the club issues its scouts with an identification card, and a scout must carry it while working and show it when asked. The rules say a scout cannot negotiate with a player, make promises or offer inducements, and that each club must have a written process for how its scouts approach players.

The FA says only people registered with it as agents are authorised to act as football agents, and it publishes a list of registered football agents (opens in a new tab). You can check a name against that list. The FA also issues each registered agent with a Digital ID (opens in a new tab), which shows their name, registration number and whether they are authorised to represent children. The FA says an agent must show it to a player, or to a child’s parent or guardian, on request. It must be shown in the ID123 app, not as a screenshot or photograph, and The FA’s page explains the other checks to make.

Our football trials guide sets out how Lincoln City says its scouts make contact, how Chelsea says it does not make contact, and the warning signs of an approach that is not genuine.

The rules on approaches

The FA’s Football Agent Regulations (opens in a new tab), in force from 1 June 2026, cover players under 18, not only children at an academy. An agent registered with The FA must not approach a child or their legal guardian before 1 September in the school year in which the child turns 16, and then only with the prior written consent of the child’s legal guardian. The Premier League’s 2026/27 handbooks repeat this rule.

For children registered with an academy, the Premier League’s and the EFL’s 2026/27 handbooks summarise further rules:

  • Other Premier League and EFL clubs, including through their staff, scouts or agents, must not contact a registered child or their family, except as the Youth Development Rules allow.
  • A registered child and their family must not contact other Premier League or EFL clubs during the registration period, directly or through someone else, except as the rules allow.

If your child is not registered with an academy, check any approach from a scout with the club the person says they come from.

Paying to be seen

Lincoln City’s policy tells families never to make any payment to someone who says they are a scout, and says “a genuine approach will not involve any financial exchange”. Paying for a showcase or exposure event buys a place at that event. A paid place is not, in itself, an invitation from a professional club, even if the organiser says scouts will attend. Our football trials guide covers what to check before paying for one.

Playing regular football

Whatever happens with scouts, you can help your child play regular football at a level that suits them, somewhere they enjoy it. Our guides to choosing a club and choosing the right tournament level can help with that. You can search for clubs near you by age group and match day.

If an approach worries you

Check it with the club the person says they are from, using contact details you find yourself rather than any they give you. Our football trials guide sets out how. For someone who says they are an agent, ask to see their FA Digital ID in the ID123 app, not as a screenshot or photograph, and check the name against The FA’s list of registered football agents (opens in a new tab).

If your child is at a Premier League club’s academy, the 2026/27 handbooks (opens in a new tab) say to contact the academy’s Head of Safeguarding straight away about an approach from a scout, and to report a concern about an agent to the Head of Safeguarding and to The FA. For concerns about approaches, inducements or other breaches of the Youth Development Rules, the handbooks also point to the Premier League’s confidential reporting service, which they say can be used anonymously. At an EFL club’s academy, the EFL’s 2026/27 handbook (opens in a new tab) says to confirm a scout’s identity with the club and to check The FA’s list of registered football agents, and it names the academy’s Designated Safeguarding Officer and the EFL’s safeguarding team for a safeguarding concern. The PFA Youth Advisory Service (opens in a new tab) can also advise. Our guide to how football academies work sets out the academy safeguarding routes in full.

If an approach makes you worried for your child’s safety, treat it as a safeguarding concern. In England, you can report it to any of these:

You do not have to report through the club first. If the concern is about the club welfare officer or someone on the committee, you can go straight to the County FA or The FA. If you cannot contact the club, league or County FA, The FA also points to the NSPCC helpline. If you think a child is suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm, contact your local authority’s children’s social care. If a child is in immediate danger, call 999.

Our guide to safeguarding in grassroots football explains how safeguarding works in clubs.

Elsewhere in the UK

This page covers the academy system run under the Premier League’s and the EFL’s rules, and The FA’s rules for agents. Youth development and the rules for agents elsewhere in the UK are organised separately.

  • England, and Welsh clubs in the English leagues: the Premier League, the EFL and The FA.
  • Scotland: the Scottish FA.
  • Wales: the Football Association of Wales.
  • Northern Ireland: the Irish FA.