Season › 2019-20 › News Everton plot international growth through new affiliate scheme Monday, 15 June, 2020 11comments | Jump to most recent Everton have launched an international coaching Affiliate Programme, with two clubs in the United States and one in Australia already on board. The Athletic report that Schluz Academy in Boca Raton, Florida, and Columbus United in Ohio have signed up to the fledgeling programme as well as Joondalup City FC in Perth, Western Australia. According to Patrick Boyland, affiliate clubs “will benefit from the guidance of Everton coaches — many of whom have experience working in the US and beyond — recruitment support and the opportunity for training trips to the club's Finch Farm complex. It is available to grassroots teams, professional sides, youth academies, girls' and women's teams, as well as colleges and universities.” Everton are hoping to leverage the club's ties in both countries that were formed with the likes of Tim Howard, Brian McBride, Landon Donovan and Tim Cahill and use this new initiative to expand their footprint, particularly in America. The aim, however, is to grow the programme into other countries should this prove to be successful with these early affiliates. “Focusing on the US was natural for us,” Director of Communications, Richard Kenyon told The Athletic. “The Premier League is growing significantly there, we have a growing network of passionate supporters' clubs and also have many former players from the US. “We have started investing in building greater engagement with US audiences over the last few years and have seen a strong level of affinity already there — we now want to build on this and ultimately make Everton the first choice for Americans with an interest in the Premier League. That's the long game — and there are many elements to that plan.” Reader Comments (11) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer Mark Andersson 1 Posted 15/06/2020 at 22:25:44 Great idea... lots of positives to be had.Some might say "too little, too late" and yes, we should have been taking full advantage of Tim Howard's and Tim Cahill's time at Everton along with many more... which I find rather bemusing as our fat controller at the time knows how to market his Westend productions.Anyway, good luck with anything positive to help bring our unique club to many more future blues... Karl Masters 2 Posted 15/06/2020 at 22:30:09 Let's hope the strategy is more successful than before.Remember 10 years ago we had Pienaar, captain of South Africa in World Cup year, Tim Howard and Landon Donovan, the two biggest names in the US team, plus Australia's best player in Tim Cahill.All that exposure to the English speaking world and we just failed to capitalise on it. Mike Gaynes 3 Posted 16/06/2020 at 01:39:38 Hallelujah. It's about fucking time.The first milestone of success will be when I can walk into a store here in the US and buy an Everton shirt.I've only been waiting 35 years. Eric Myles 4 Posted 16/06/2020 at 03:35:38 Mike #3, we're still waiting in our home town too!! The only outlet being the dedicated Everton store. Mark Andersson 5 Posted 16/06/2020 at 06:13:14 Mike, think of the back catalogue of shirts you can buy after 35 years. Bobby Mallon 6 Posted 16/06/2020 at 06:55:04 The biggest let down was having Li Tie on our books, the darling of Chinese football. We should have had a few shops open when we had him over there. Over a billion population, some boat we missed there. Phill Thompson 7 Posted 16/06/2020 at 09:59:57 ? The club announced this about three weeks ago, odd for it to appear in the Athletic now. Steve Ferns 8 Posted 17/06/2020 at 01:12:10 We tried this coaching thing a good few years ago. We tried to flog our elite “Everton Way†coaching program and it all went pear shaped.The brains, on a coaching level, behind this was Terry “Tosh†Farrell. He was credited as being the best coach of young kids in England and was credited with developing young Rooney to Barkley and everyone in between. I heard that our kids were very technically proficient as a result of his methods.Anyways, the coaching scheme lost its “Everton Way†title and became the Tosh Farrell Soccer School or similar. It seemed like there was a parting of the ways and we lost a vital young gifted coach.I hope it works better this time. Steve Ferns 9 Posted 17/06/2020 at 01:19:23 Link to FourFourTwo article that is a good few years old but very interesting. Even more so when you consider the bleak prediction never materialised and instead we had youth success. That said, he talks more about the failure of clubs to give kids a chance and with even Phil Foden not getting a regular game and now 19, and loads going to Germany to get a game instead, there's credence to what he said. Jerome Shields 10 Posted 17/06/2020 at 04:34:10 I remember the last time. Great idea, poorly implemented and fizzled out. Denise will get a few freebies and give talks on Everton in the Community this time, which will help. Jerome Shields 11 Posted 17/06/2020 at 04:48:07 Actually, this was tried twice unsuccessfully before third time lucky. Add Your Comments In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site. » Log in now Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site. About these ads