Would you like to develop a full-time career helping to change the way football is thought of, trained and promoted in the UK?

At Socatots & Brazilian Soccer Schools it is our mission to improve the coaching, mentoring and development of children throughout the UK. This is your opportunity to enter the Sports industry, without having to accept, often unsustainable pay levels and limited career progression. We offer the highest possible quality education and continuous development to all of our franchisees and coaches.

Unlike a lot of franchise companies, Socatots & Brazilian Soccer Schools only thrive on your success, the decision of whether to run a franchise must be right for both you and us, which is why we do not hard sell or exaggerate our earning claims. What we do want are highly motivated and exceptionally talented individuals to run franchises.

Futebol de Salão initially acted as a springboard for the international careers of Brazilian football stars, such as Rivelino, Zico, Careca and above all, Juninho. Since the UKCFDS exported these methods to the UK in 1996 many more players but also coaches have been positively developed and gone on to have professional careers doing what they love:

• Micah Richards – Former England International;
• John Farnworth – World and European Football Freestyle Championships, holder of 5 Guinness World Records;
• Ryan Fraser – Bournemouth FC, Scotland International;
• Indie Cowie – Guinness World Record holder, Football Freestyler;
• Marlon Fossey – Fulham FC, USA U20 International;
• Abby Towers – Sunderland AFC Ladies, England Ladies;
• Peter Pawlett – Dundee United, Scotland U21 International;
• John Bostock – Toulouse FC;
• Ben Wrigglesworth – ‎European Scout, Wolverhampton Wanderers FC;
• Kristian Wilson – Performance Coach,  OGC Nice;
• Cole Kiernan – Sunderland AFC;
• John Herdman – Head Coach, Canada men’s national soccer team;
• Peter Sturgess – FA National Development Coach;
• Michael Beale – First Team Coach, Rangers FC;
• Aiden White – Heart of Midlothian FC, Republic of Ireland U21.

and many more.

Many prime territories are available within the UK

The costs are not set in stone, but rather we split the areas into postcodes (eg CB1, CB2 etc) and we calculate the pricing by the volume of population eligible for you to recruit in the postcodes you choose to acquire. We award exclusive and protected territories, meaning no one can operate one of our Franchises in the Territories that you acquire.

Below we have an illustrated world map and general list showing the global reach of our current Socatots & Brazilian Soccer Schools network, who are all striving for the same vision.

There are many qualities that we are looking for in each prospective Franchise applicant which we will set out below, but remember, we are always there to support our Franchise partners once the application process has been completed, and a Franchise awarded.

1. A passion for working with children every day, and having a large part to play in their ongoing development
2. Principles of coach development that match our own philosophies of how children should be educated and developed
3. A thirst for hard work
4. A willingness to follow the operations procedure that is recommended by us, and based upon previous success
5. Experience of building and managing customer relationships

“I don’t want to copy Brazil, that would be pointless, I wanted us to be better”. Simon Clifford

SOCATOTS & Brazilian Soccer Schools have a long and illustrious history dating back to the formation of the latter way back in 1996. This predates majority owner Rupert Lowe’s involvement and below we will explore this story further.

Founder and former owner Simon Clifford’s initial research began in 1989 following a study into youth development in Holland, Spain, France, Italy and England.

Later Simon embarked upon a fact finding mission to Brazil with only a £6,000 loan, which resulted in what we think is a training system that gives committed and hardworking participants the best chance at succeeding as not only professional footballers but well-rounded individuals. The first Brazilian Soccer School was started in 1996, in Leeds. Simon had become friends with the Brazilian star Juninho, which helped lead to the discovery of the game of Futebol de Salão. During his first spell at Middlesborough FC Simon managed to persuade him to come down to the school that he taught at (Corpus Christ in Halton Moor, Leeds) to take part in a health week initiative that the school were running.

Juninho got involved with the football coaching that Simon was running for the school team, enjoyed it but at the end of the session he asked Simon, “When do the children play Futebol de Salão?” At this point Simon had no idea what the game was or its importance in the culture of Brazilian football. Juninho explained that children in Brazil were brought up first playing only with a small, heavy ball with no bounce (Futebol de Salão) before moving on to conventional football in their teenage years. Juninho was astounded that it was not also played in the UK and Simon was fascinated by the explanation of the game. Juninho arranged for some Futebol de Salão balls to be sent over for Simon to use.

The benefits to children’s technique were very easy to see and prompted Simon’s initial trip to Brazil to discover exactly what lay behind Brazil’s historical dominance of world football.

Later, in 2003 Simon developed the Socatots scheme that sees children between the ages of six months and five years taught basic movement and football skills in a pre-school type environment. The idea was conceived after Simon could not find any age appropriate activities for his daughter, Mary whilst she was in the preschool age group.

The next chapter in the history of the organisation came in December 2012 when Rupert Lowe, ex Chairman of Southampton FC and FA Board Member took full control and ownership over from Simon Clifford.

Under the new ownership structure plans are in place to undergo the next stage of expansion and we are very grateful for the continued hard work and support of the current family of franchisees who are helping to transport such a wonderful development product to children across the world.

Fred Lowe: Managing Director: 

Fred has been working for SOCATOTS & Brazilian Soccer Schools in one way or another since 2010, when learning from founder, Simon Clifford. A graduate of Leeds University and FA Level 1 Qualified Coach, he has also spent time at Chelsea FC as a Marketing Intern in addition to previous experience of voluntary work for Garforth Town FC.

Rupert Lowe: Director:

Rupert was Chairman of Southampton Football Club in two spells from 1996 – 2006 and subsequently 2008-2009.

His main achievements included reaching the FA Cup Final in 2003, with consequent European Qualification for the club for the first time in nearly 20 years. Off the field he also secured the funding to develop the new St Mary’s stadium project in 2002 at a cost of £34 million, on time and on budget. He has also served on the board of the Football Association, Professional Game Board, Wembley National Stadium Limited and the Challenge Cup Committee.

His main vision, however, was borne out in the highly successful structure of the club’s youth academy that reached the FA Youth Cup Final in 2005 and has developed a track record of producing world class players, earning the club plaudits as well as millions of pounds in transfer fees in the process. The recipe for this model of success was in the recruitment of highly renowned youth coaching guru Georges Prost as well as a top class recruitment team and a local Hotel, Darwin Lodge to house the boys together. In terms of players produced, the results are there for all to see with England internationals Alex Oxlade – Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw and Wayne Bridge all benefiting. This is not to mention the World’s most expensive player Gareth Bale, with dozens of others similarly inhabiting the professional league pyramid around the UK and beyond.

Rupert firmly believes in the syllabuses of Brazilian Soccer Schools and SOCATOTS, to bring great educational and sporting benefits to young people across the globe.

Will Partington: Head Coach, Brazilian Soccer Schools:

Will Partington is currently the Director of Socatots & Brazilian Soccer Schools Jersey as well as the Global Head Coach of Brazilian Soccer Schools worldwide.

Having been a long time admirer of founder Simon Clifford’s work Will spent a lot of time and effort tracking Simon down over 10 years ago to find out more about the now proven and highly regarded Brazilian Soccer Schools coaching programme. In the subsequent years Will made full use of his access to both the coaching syllabus and Simon’s yearly ICFDS coaching courses to ensure that he delivered the coaching syllabus to the best ability he could in his allotted franchise area of Jersey.

Will’s inaugural trip to Brazil was back in the days when he was a full English beach soccer international and spent time playing for the beach soccer teams of Vasco de Gama and Flamengo.

This was the first of what have now become annual research trips to Brazil, with Will now owning his own property in Rio de Janeiro. Over many years Will has immersed himself in the Brazilian culture and developed many friends within the Soccer industry and beyond out in Brazil. He has had trips to meet Jairzinho as well as visit Careca’s soccer school in Sao Paolo. This unrestricted access has continued to the present day where on his last visit he was given a free rein to observe the set up and coaching infrastructure within the Professional clubs Fluminense and Flamengo. Will even delivered his own even  sessions within their youth academies.

This has seen Will continue to build his coaching education and further explore the physical side of the game, combining this with the technique and flexibility displayed by players introduced to specific body and ball movements from a young age. In the midst of this journey Will has had so far had with Brazilian Soccer Schools he crossed paths with current owner Rupert Lowe when Simon Clifford accepted a job at Southampton FC with Sir Clive Woodward.

Paul Darton: Head Coach, Socatots:

In 2006 at the age of 16, Paul started his coaching career at a local football club which he used to play for. Purely by chance he later had the opportunity to enrol onto a football coaching course which was being run locally as someone had dropped out from the club he was working at, and consequently there was a spare place o the course. He has since gone on to complete the FA Level 2 qualification as well as the FA Youth Modules.

At  18 years old Paul began his journey with SOCATOTS and Brazilian Soccer Schools by working for  a previous franchisee in Bedfordshire as a part time job. However Paul has always wanted to pursue a full-time career in coaching, which is his passion in life.

Since he strongly believed in the methods and ethos of both the SOCATOTS & BSS programmes, in 2010 at the age of 20 he started doing some initial research into fulfilling this dream of coach football as a full time career. He decided get in touch with the team at Head Office about owning his own franchise. With some careful consideration and the backing of his parents who helped with an initial loan to help get the project started, at the age of 21, he signed a contract to become Franchise owner of ‘SOCATOTS Milton Keynes’ starting from April 2011.

Since then he has gone on to acquire a Brazilian Soccer Schools licence, as well as expanding his operation out to the areas of Leighton Buzzard & Buckingham. In 2017, Paul was appointed Head Coach of Socatots UK.