The Football Academy is now recruiting student-athletes for the 2017 academic year. Apply .
All candidates for the Football Academy must be on a full-time course at SGS College. We offer academic opportunities from BTEC qualifications, A-Levels, Higher National Diplomas and Degree courses.
Candidates must also be over 16 from the start date of their chosen course. For more information you can the Head Coach at
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Best Football Programme within Education
Our Football Academy is well-renowned and twice it has been awarded the Best Football Programme within Education in the country by the Football Association.
Over 25 of our graduates have been selected for English Colleges FA or English School’s FA national teams.
Most notably, in 2016, we became the first ever Football Academy to produce six England internationals in one year, when three of our students represented the ESFA and three represented the ECFA respectively.
The Football Academy has a proud history of producing teams that compete for trophies since it was established in 1999.
Our Football Academy currently plays in the English Colleges FA Centre of Excellence League and in the South West Counties’ League. We also regularly play friendlies against the professional clubs in the Bristol environs. Our second and third teams compete in the AOC Leagues and Cups.
Our successes include winning the England Colleges FA National Premier League three times. We have also won the ECFA League Cup, the ECFA Regional League and the British Colleges of Sport National Cup. Our Academy is also a six-time runner up of the ECFA Champions League. At regional level, we have in the past won the South-West Counties League and Cup.
Academy Programme
All members of our Academy are enrolled on full time academic courses at SGS College.
These lessons are intertwined with 16-20 hours of training throughout the academic year with games on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Our student athletes benefit from top class training facilities at the college, which includes laser-levelled grass pitches, a floodlit pitch, an indoor 3G pitch and changing rooms fully equipped with ice baths.
Additionally, the Football Academy students get supervised strength and conditioning sessions at our state-of-the-art gym. There is also access to onsite full-time professional physios to help with injury avoidance and rehabilitation.
There is a pathway to becoming professional through our official partnership with Bristol City FC.
In 2016, former Leeds United and Forrest Green manager, David Hockaday took over as Head of the Football Academy at SGS College.
Our programme has been a success and since its inception over 20 students have signed professional contracts including Chris Lines (Sheffield Wednesday), Sean Rigg (Port Vale) and Elliot Richards (Bristol Rovers). Many Academy students have also played semi-professionally while others have undertaken footballing scholarships in America.
