How Elite Football Academies are using Teamworks Hub

A World-Class Field

Teamworks was proud to serve as a sponsor of the 2026 U16 Liam Brady Cup, hosted at Arsenal’s renowned Hale End Academy. The tournament brought together eight elite youth academies from across EMEA, LATAM, and APAC — a gathering of the next generation of football talent.

With clubs travelling from as far as South America and Australia, the Liam Brady Cup is one of the most internationally diverse youth tournaments in the world — and a fitting stage to showcase how Arsenal, with input from Nottingham Forest and Feyenoord, are using Teamworks Hub to connect and empower their academies.

A Welcome Session with Purpose

Beyond the competition itself, Teamworks used the occasion to bring academy operations practitioners and team managers together for an exclusive welcome session hosted by George Wells, Director, Customer Success at Teamworks. The conversation centred on the real, day-to-day challenges facing modern football academies — and how Teamworks Hub is helping teams navigate them.

“Teamworks have worked with Arsenal for the last six years and when Sam Rawlings approached us to see if we would be interested in supporting this year’s event, we were happy and proud to be given the chance.”

Discussion included the many challenges that Teamworks Hub helps Academy operations practitioners overcome in a single, secure platform:

• Player Profiles
  Maintaining accurate, accessible records for every player in an academy
• Calendars and Schedules
  Aligning complex training, match, and education schedules across large squads and support staff
• Travel Planning
  Coordinating logistics for trips, fixtures, and tournaments like this one
• Messaging
  Keeping players, parents, coaches, and staff on the same page through a secure messaging function
• Files, Forms and Media
  Sending important forms and documents digitally, and engaging players with photos and video content

The session was a genuine exchange of ideas among experts who understand the operational complexity of running a high-performance academy — and a chance to explore how technology can reduce that burden.

Best practices in Digital Displays – using smart display technology to share schedules, announcements, and updates across club facilities – were on-show throughout the tournament.

“Using our new digital displays tailored for each team in their changing rooms to provide a personalised welcome and update the details throughout the tournament was great to see“

You can learn more about how Glasgow Rangers Academy also use digital displays to great effect here.

Building the Future of Academy Operations

Events like the Liam Brady Cup remind us why we do what we do. The clubs competing at Hale End are developing the players, coaches, and administrators who will shape football for the next generation. Behind every great academy is a team of dedicated staff working hard to create the conditions for talent to thrive — and Teamworks is committed to giving them the tools to do that well.

If you are a manager in a professional football academy and would like to learn more about implementing Teamworks Hub into your operations workflows, reach out to the team via the form below.

We’re grateful to Arsenal for their partnership and hospitality, to Sam Rawlings and the team at Hale End for making the event so special, and to all eight clubs for their energy and spirit throughout the tournament.

Here’s to the next one.