Bohemians Youth FC was formed in June 2004 and has quickly evolved to become one of the largest clubs in the Norfolk and Suffolk Youth League, with 12 boys’ and 7 girls’ teams in the 2005/6 season, compared with 9 boys and 3 girls in 2004/5.

The clubs initial priority was to achieve the Football Association Charter Mark accreditation. After a tremendous amount of hard work, we were duly awarded the Charter Mark in March 2005 and were presented with our plaque by Norfolk FA during the halftime break in the Norfolk Senior Cup Final, between Diss & Wroxham at Carrow Road on May 11th 2005.

During our expansion, another priority surfaced. It was to find a permanent home for our teams to train and play to accommodate the tremendous growth that we have experienced in our first year. This has been achieved in conjunction with Belton Parish Council which now sees many of the clubs teams training and playing at the New Road Sports Field in Belton. The site is home to our mini-soccer teams and several of our younger 11-a-side teams as well.  BYFC views New road as a long term ‘work in progress’, and would like to thank the Parish Council for giving us the opportunity of working with them to develop a modern facility on the site.

During our accreditation process, the club wanted to forge working links with local schools and colleges and, in conjunction with the Norfolk Football Association, much of this has been done. The club has now forged links with Cliff Park High School and is their appointed provider for football as part of their Sports College Status. Under this umbrella, we (Norfolk FA, CPHS and BYFC) are working in tandem with local Primary and Middle Schools to encourage girls to participate in football by carrying out coaching sessions in several local schools.

Another part of the clubs development plan has been to offer various training schemes. One of these, the Shadow Training programme, involves students aged 14 and over coming along to work with a qualified coach within the club to gain experience of coaching younger children first hand. It is the club's aim to empower these enthusiastic and willing students to assume certain responsibilities, which will help them in their 'Sports Leadership' courses. There will also be opportunities to undertake the nationally recognised FA level 1 coaching course, and to train to become a qualified referee.

To this end, BYFC held a 4 week referees course during November 2005 at Cliff Park High School, and a Level 1 Coaching course in April 2006, both of which will be delivered by qualified tutors from Norfolk FA.

In the spring of 2007 the club applied to Norfolk County FA for the next stage of the Charter Standard Scheme and in May we were advised that we had passed.  BYFC is now a Charter Standard Development Club.  For the 2007/08 season we are also proud to announce that we have a senior ladies team that will be part of the Norfolk Womens & Girls Football League.  This now gives our older girls an avenue to continue playing football after the U16 age group. 

Thank you's

The BYFC committee would like to thank the following individuals for their selfless dedication, without which we are sure that we would not have progressed as far as we have, so quickly.

Aidy – for all his hard work in making BYFC the ‘quickest’ new club to achieve the Charter Mark in Norfolk (accreditation achieved within nine months of being founded).

Garry – for working with Belton Parish Council in securing New Road as a venue.

David – for setting up the clubs development plan with Cliff Park.

And of course, there’s Matt for all his work supporting the above and getting us through the second stage of the Charter Standard scheme.

Click here for information about our facilities at New Road Belton.