The Spartans Way

The welfare of the child comes first.

Our aim is to provide the opportunity for children and young people to play football in a safe environment, and to be treated as such - not as small adults.

Children should be given a fair chance to participate, compete and win. As a club we will constantly seek to stretch and challenge the abilities of the players with the aim of developing them to play football at the highest level. Players are expected to be punctual, have good standards of behaviour and be ready to listen, learn and practise.

Participation at all times is encouraged with an emphasis on skill development, athleticism and the development of the child socially as well as in a sporting context. Our aim is for players to learn life skills and strong values for later life. A win at all costs attitude is discouraged - competition is encouraged but not to the detriment of the development of skill, speed, stamina, strength and suppleness.

Player Pathway

We work in Partnership with the Scottish Youth FA to follow the Player Pathway which takes a player-centred approach to developing the football potential of a young child.

The pathway is progressive, coherent and challenging. At Spartans FC Youth we follow the pathway carefully and don’t fast forward or miss out any of the development stages.

Our boys squads play Fun 4s at U8, Super 5s at U9, Soccer Sevens at U10 & U11 and 9-aside at U12. From U13 and up our squads move to 11-aside games and we have teams at each age group U13, 14, 15, 16, 17 & 19.

Our girls section operates from U9s to U17s. Playing 4s at U9, 7s at U11 & U13, 9s at U13 and 11-aside at U15 & U17.

Our ultimate aim is to produce players for our Adult teams and beyond.

Flora’s Soccer School first kicked a ball in Inverleith Park in May 1996, led by Carlo de Angelis.

Due to its popularity with local kids and the dedication of its volunteers, the club quickly developed beyond a friendly kickabout in the park with an honesty box for subs. Securing funding enabled the professionalism of the club to progress, coaches completed SFA Coaching Qualifications, equipment and match kit was purchased. Players from many schools across North Edinburgh joined the club prompting the club to change its name to Inverleith Star.

The next stage in the development of the club occurred when Craig Graham proposed that Inverleith Star become the Youth Section of Spartans FC, and in 2003 Inverleith Star became The Spartans FC Youth. The ultimate aim of the merger was to continue to improve the opportunities for children and adults playing football in North Edinburgh.

and who’s taking us there…..

Our Team

Development Squad

The Spartans FC Adult Section, in conjunction with the Youth Section, run Development Squads for a small number of identified players. Development Squad players are nominated by their Head Coach to received one additional professional coaching session each week, at Ainslie Park. Players invited to join a development squad continue to train with their age group squad as normal. Development Squad participants are reviewed on a regular basis. From time to time exceptional players will be invited to play up or train with the age group above their own in order to further foster their development potential.

Development football creates an additional pathway for talented youth players to move onto the highest level of adult football within the club and beyond. For more information on our Development Squads please contact stuart.gray@spartansfcyouth.com

Child Protection

Please see the Documents section of the website for our Child Wellbeing and Protection Policy. The club’s Child Wellbeing and Protection Officer is Carolyn Embleton who can be contacted here.