Hey Reader,
You spend £10,000 on a football analytics masters degree or $800 on a scouting course.
You complete every module. Pass the assessment. Frame the certificate.
Then nothing happens.
No interviews. No opportunities. Just you, your LinkedIn profile, and that shiny new certificate sitting in your downloads folder alongside 3,000 other people who did the exact same thing.
The Three Paths People Take
Last week I ran two webinars with over 300 people trying to break into football recruitment.
I asked them which path they were on.
Path 1: Send 200 generic applications. Use LinkedIn Easy Apply. Get no responses. Give up after six months.
Path 2: Do more courses. PFSA, IPSO, another degree. Spend thousands. Still no job. Get more certificates, same result.
Path 3: Wait for more experience before applying. But you can't get experience without opportunities. So you never start.
70% said they were stuck in Path 2.
The certificate trap.
Why Certificates Don't Get You Hired
Most education providers optimise for one thing: getting you certified.
Join, learn, pass an assessment, get your certificate. Job done.
PFSA, IPSO, Sports Data Campus, they teach solid technical skills. But the process stops the moment you pass.
They give you knowledge. They don't give you visibility. They don't build your network. They don't help you demonstrate what you can actually do.
One member in the Recruitment Room completed a degree with Sports Data Campus. Good technical skills.
But when he landed his role at a scout consultancy last June, it wasn't the degree that got him hired. It was his online portfolio. The work he'd been sharing publicly for months.
The Real Problem
Thousands other people have that same certificate. The same technical skills. The same modules completed.
The certificate gets you going. It doesn't differentiate you once you're wanting opportunities.
Education without visibility and relationships just means you stay stuck in the same space.
You know more. But no one in football knows you exist.
What Actually Works
When clubs recruit, they need three things your certificate can't provide:
- Proof you can do the work. Scout reports. Data visualisations. Technical skills.
- Visibility. Someone at the club needs to know you exist before they can hire you.
- Network. Most opportunities come through connections. Someone gives you a reference. Someone opens a door.
The member who landed at that scout consultancy? He had the degree. But what got him the interview was six months of consistent work online. Demonstrating his capability. Building relationships. Making himself referable.
The Reality Check
If you're thinking another course will be the breakthrough, ask yourself: how many people in football already know your work exists?
If the answer is close to zero, more education won't solve that.
The certificate trap isn't that courses are useless. It's that they're incomplete.
You learn in isolation. You pass in isolation. Then you wonder why no one's giving you an opportunity.
Football doesn't reward you for your technical skills. It rewards visibility and relationships built over time.
Education is your foundation. Visibility and network are how you build on it.
One without the other just keeps you stuck.
Liam
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