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A youth system or squad is a football term, used to refer to a particular team's youth investment program, which develops and nurtures young (often local) talent, with the intention of using them in the First Team if they show enough promise, and to fill up squads in teams with small budgets. Football clubs take responsibility for developing their own players of the future. Some youth systems are classified as football academies.

Within Soccer Manager the primary use of a youth team is to help you organise your squad better. There will not be any specific games played for your Youth Squad. However, any player within your Youth Squad can play for the First Team. Alternatively, you could play a game entirely with your Youth Squad by selecting them from your Tactics page.

Players aged 21 years or below can be moved to your Youth Squad. To do this you will need to access their Player Profile, select Squad Status, then Youth Squad and then click on Confirm Squad Status. Likewise to promote a player from your Youth Squad to the First team you will need to do the last procedure but select First Team instead.

Players can be moved between the two squads freely throughout the season. However, at the seasons end any player who is no longer eligible for your Youth Squad will be promoted automatically to the first team.