Central Football Academy was founded as a Girls only football team in January 2014 by teacher Ian Dibdin (Dibs) and a group of coaches.
In 2002, Dibs, along with Pauline Hamill (currently the National U-19s manager), was asked to develop the girls youth & adult sections of Falkirk FC by then manager Ian McCall (now Ayr United)and community manager Tom Elliott.
Dibs helped design the girls youth & adult set-ups for both Falkirk FC & Stenhousemuir. Both systems went on to grow immensely. However, with many players leaving the Central Belt in order to develop their game at an elite level, there was a void in elite coaching provision in the region, hence Central Football Academy was formed.
With a lack of ambition at the time within Falkirk & Stirling clubs to support Womens Football at a higher level, Dibs decided to take action and founded Central Girls Football Academy in January 2014.
The motivation was to offer elite coaching to centrally based players to offer them the choice of playing with Central rather than to travel into the cities to attend to their development needs and ambitions.
The club grew quickly with the tag line ‘Imagine… Believe… Achieve…’ soon becoming the Academy’s mantra.
Dibs believed that coaching went beyond practical sessions and that the development of information, fitness and female specific awareness was the way forward.
Dibs traveled to Kansas USA to see the structures and psychology behind the #1 club in the US at the time as well as the #1 nation for women’s international football.
The trip was a revelation and changed Dibs’ psyche and opinion on womens football, from Under-5s with full Coerver ability to Under-11s competitive matches with referee and assistants running the line to signal offside.
By looking beyond the Scottish border Dibs was to find a model that fitted in well with his belief that football should be played in a technical way as well as being entertaining and good to the eye.
True to those days Central Academy is respected for its pursuit of excellence and the development of its youth programme.
In July, 2014 the club had its first main success in a long line of many when the Under-14 team captured the UK Championship.
League championships, Scottish Cups, League Cups and various trophies as well as player recognition at international level have supported Dibs’ and the Academy’s coaches pursuit of excellence.
In 2015, due to high demand, a Boys Section was started and the club as a whole became known as Central Football Academy.
In 2019 the 2006 Boys were to capture the Development League Cup, winning against local club Syngenta 4-0. This was the first national trophy for the boys and followed Ayr Cup and Perth Cup successes at tournament level.
In October 2021 the SFA awarded Dibs the award for Best Volunteer in Women’s & Girl’s Football. The award marked Dibs’ almost 20 years involvement in Women’s Football.
From our 1st match v Muriston and our 1st ever goal from a Kerry-Anne Charles header in a 4-0 win, Central have gone on to fantastic achievements inside and outside of football. But most of all a will to win based on playing the beautiful game in a sporting and respectful manner. Simply… this is the way we play.
Ian Dibdin (Dibs) – Founder of Central Football Academy