The Israel Football Association's technical department gathered the professional directors of Israeli clubs' youth departments at the National Team House in Shefayim this week to lay out its development programme for the coming season, ONE reports — a rare sit-down between the federation's coaching hierarchy and the people who run academy football on the ground.
Federation CEO Yariv Tefer, who took over the administrative side of the association last August after more than two decades inside the organisation, opened the meeting by stressing that dialogue between the technical department and the clubs, rather than instructions handed down from above, is what will move Israeli youth football forward.
The bulk of the presentation came from Boni Ginzburg, technical director of Israel's youth national teams, who set out roughly half a dozen priorities for the season ahead: a new development league, a fresh cycle at the football academy, a UEFA-designed project for "late developers" — players who mature technically or physically later than their peers — a programme to advance football in Arab communities, expanded coach education and a dedicated goalkeepers' project within the national-team pathway.
"Youth club departments are our most important partners," Ginzburg told the room, according to ONE. "Staying connected to the field and sharing knowledge is what will develop Israeli football professionally."
On the data side, Adam David, the federation's head of technology and analytics, unveiled IFAnalytics, a new system for processing players' performance data, and described joint projects with clubs on physiological monitoring aimed at addressing the so-called relative age effect — the well-known bias toward players born earlier in the selection year — across the youth divisions.
Scouting chief Moshe Sinai and his assistant, Idan Genot, outlined upgraded methods for identifying talent for the development centres, the academy and the youth national teams, and previewed a pilot scheme called "Reaching Every Player Everywhere," which will let staff share video of prospects from Israel and abroad through a dedicated platform.
Noa Greenberg Drori, head of the federation's medical department, presented a monitoring partnership with VALD, the athlete-testing technology group already used elsewhere in the federation's operations, that will build individual physiological profiles for players and pass professional recommendations on to their clubs. Grant Slobin gave further detail on the testing protocols involved, while Eli Sudai, the academy's professional director, closed the technical presentations with plans for its next intake and closer coordination with clubs even after players move on from the programme.
From the clubs' side, Itai Mordechai, professional director of Maccabi Haifa's youth department, welcomed the session. "An important and meaningful day," he said. "The professional ideas and work processes presented here will strengthen cooperation between the federation's technical department and the clubs."
The presentation, as reported, did not include a budget figure or a firm start date for the new development league or the academy's next cycle — detail likely to follow as pre-season preparations continue ahead of the 2026/27 campaign.
