AFC Sudbury Youth Development Phase (YDP) is overseen by our Academy Manager Craig Power & Head of Girls Football Darren Scoulding. The YDP teams compete in the Eastern Junior Alliance (Boys U13 - 16), Ipswich & Suffolk U13 League (Boys U12s) & the Junior Premier League (Girls). These leagues provide our YDP players with challenging weekly fixtures, often playing fixtures outside of Suffolk.

The YDP has significantly grown over the years with no fewer than 30 ex-YDP players (Boys & Girls) now attending the full time academy daily.

Our Youth Development Phase philosophy is built around each individual player. We want every player to feel part of the AFC Sudbury football family as we believe young people thrive when they are happy and belong to something.

The YDP follows the same four corner player development framework that our full time students (16 to 18 year olds) use. This allows players to reflect on their own development in the technical, tactical, psychological and physical corner. We feel with more autonomy given to the lead coach in each age group we can really focus on the player's individual progress in the above four corners.

The words excellence & elite are commonly used in many sporting environments and we are firm believers that these words must be earned and ask every player to contribute a maximum work ethic, resilience and respect towards the aim of reaching these high standards.