East of Scotland Soccer Development Association

How to Join ESSDA

The catchment area of ESSDA is the Edinburgh area of the SFA South East region, but we have teams from as far away as Inverkeithing, North Berwick and Peebles.

ESSDA is a development association offering small sided football to children aged 12 and below and we follow the SFA/SYFA Player Pathway.

Our age groups are calendar year based, and for the 2024 season these are:
Born 2012    -    Age group 12s  - Play Nines 9s on a home and away basis for the 2024 First Half and then Play 11v11 with SERYFA after summer.
Born 2013    -    Age group 11s  - Play Soccer 7s on a home and away basis for the 2024 First Half and then Play Nines 9s on a home and away basis for 2024 Second Half
Born 2014    -    Age group 10s  - Play Soccer 7s on a home and away basis
Born 2015    -    Age group 9s    - Play Soccer 7s on a home and away basis
Born 2016    -    Age group 8s    - Play Super 5s at central venues
Born 2017    -    Age group 7s    - Play Football 4s at central venues
Born 2018    -    Age group 6s  ESSDA does not offer football for children at age 6 and below. Clubs offering this age group must do so by registering as Soccer Schools with SYFA.

All children playing ESSDA football must be SFA registered on the SFA Live system, and must play for their registered age groups. A small percentage of children at any age group can be registered as one age group above their age. To play for a younger age group or to play two years older requires permission from SYFA at Hampden.

All Clubs playing ESSDA football must be SYFA registered on SFA Live system for the calendar year.  To be SFA registered, every club must be:

-    A properly constituted Cub with a Chairman, Treasurer and Child Protection Officer
-    At least one coach must be SFA qualified to level two
-    At least one coach must be an SYFA qualified First Aider
-    All Team Officials must be PVG Scheme Member with SYFA

For help about becoming a new Club, please contact SFA South East at Oriam

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Last modified on: 18/12/2023