INTRODUCTION
Olympique de Marseille’s youth recruitment policy is in accordance with article 98 bis of the Fédération Française de Football’s general regulations, which states that a player under 15 years cannot transfer to a club more than 50kms from his home. Only young players who have taken part in one of the FFF’s Pôles Espoirs competitions can be exempted from this rule and join the 13- and 14-yo elite pre-training classes.

SUPERVISED COMPETITIONS
A territorial segment, which takes into account players’ age groups and the possibilities that the scouts who comprise the network can offer, allows OM to take stock of the best youngsters playing in the SOUTH zone and to follow their development and possibly offer them a place at the Youth Academy once they reach a suitable age.
Nine scouts assigned by region and by age group are charged with observing the national, regional and departmental competitions taking place in the Ligue de la Méditerranée and the Ligue Rhône Alpes as follows :

Beginners
Marseille and surrounding suburbs

Chicks
Marseille and all of the Bouches du Rhône

Juniors
- Marseille and all of the Bouches du Rhône
- The final regional phases of the Ligue de la Méditerranée and the Ligue Rhône Alpes in the Coupe Nationale

13 years
- League championships of the Ligue de la Méditerranée and the Ligue Rhône Alpes
- FFF Pôles Espoirs matches

14 years
- Federal Championships taking place in the PACA and Rhône Alpes regions
- Final phase of the Coupe Nationale Inter-Ligues
- FFF Pôles Espoirs matches

15 years
League championships of the Ligue de la Méditerranée and the Ligue Rhône Alpes

Any promising young player can aspire to join Olympique de Marseille, its Elite Categories and then its Youth Academy from Beginners up to the age of 16. Recruitment of players for the 18 years Nationals and the CFA championships is undertaken by the professional section.

HOW THE RECRUITMENT UNIT FUNCTIONS
A player singled out by a scout is first observed by one of the scout’s colleagues before being invited by the club to attend a training camp, or to try out, in the following way :
- Recruitment days for the 13 and 15 years age groups.
- Training camps during school holidays for the age groups from Beginners to Juniors.

Once these sessions have been held, the young players selected are called to a meeting with the educator assigned to their age group and participate in training with our players.
If the Youth Academy Director and the age group educator think the player has a ‘high level’ profile, they will, in the presence of the Administrative Director, meet with the parents to discuss the individual program to be implemented for the player in terms of sporting and academic development, accommodation, transport and medical support.

CONCLUSION
Our scouts are conscious of the difficulties of their task but continue their work to make sure that the best youngsters from our region have the chance to blossom at our Club and to allow our educators to take them to the highest level of regional, national or international football.
The greatest satisfaction is to know that 35 graduates of the OM Youth Academy began season 2006-07 in professional teams in Ligue 1, Ligue 2 and other European leagues.
An analysis of players in the 14-yo Federals since the creation of the competition shows that 71% of them arrived at the Club in the 13- and 14-years categories in the following proportions :
- 31 players, or 31.5 %, in the 14 years category
- 38 players, or 39.5 %, in the 13 years category

This supports the analysis done by the DTN, which showed that the majority of young players join professional clubs in these categories.