The EFL will mark the 20th season of its Family Excellence Scheme in 2026/27, with junior season ticket sales across the competition having risen by 73% over the same two-decade period.
That figure does not prove one scheme did all the heavy lifting, but it does explain why the anniversary matters: attracting children is one thing; making football feel like somewhere their families want to return to is the harder job.
How the EFL Family Excellence Scheme changed the matchday brief
The Family Excellence Scheme began as a way of helping Clubs identify barriers that could make attending matches less appealing or straightforward for families across England and Wales. Developed and delivered with the Fan Experience Company from the outset, it has since become a broader programme for junior and family engagement.
That evolution is more revealing than any anniversary badge. Matchday loyalty is rarely forged by a mission statement. It is built through repeated experiences — arriving without friction, feeling welcome and giving a young supporter enough reason to ask when the next home game is.
The EFL’s approach has therefore moved beyond simply getting families through the turnstiles. The aim is to make the day itself memorable enough to form an attachment.
Junior season ticket sales are up 73% — with a caveat
Junior season ticket sales across the EFL have increased by 73% during the Scheme’s two decades. It is the cleanest measure in the supplied figures, and the one most likely to catch the eye.
It should also be handled with a little discipline. The EFL says the Scheme has contributed to growth in junior attendance; it does not claim the programme alone produced that 73% rise. Football, like most things involving crowds and money, is rarely generous enough to offer a single-cause explanation.
Still, the direction is significant. Clubs have spent twenty seasons treating younger supporters and families as an audience requiring thought, rather than assuming affection for the badge will simply arrive by inheritance.
Family matchday experience is really about retention
The strategic value sits in what happens after a first visit.
A child attending with a parent, grandparent or sibling is not merely another body in a seat. That match can become a shared family reference point, and repeated visits can turn familiarity into habit.
The Scheme’s emphasis on welcoming, accessible and memorable matchdays is therefore less about polishing the edges of an afternoon and more about strengthening the long-term relationship between Clubs and their communities.
That local connection matters to the EFL’s own description of the programme. Beyond attendance, it sees Family Excellence as a means of keeping football relevant to families and creating experiences shared across generations.
Trevor Birch on the next generation of EFL fans
EFL Chief Executive Trevor Birch said: “This is a proud milestone for the EFL and our Clubs. For twenty seasons, the Family Excellence Scheme has helped put families and young supporters at the heart of the matchday experience, encouraging Clubs to think differently about how they welcome, inspire and build lasting connections with the next generation of fans.
We are incredibly proud of its impact and look forward to celebrating the Clubs, communities and people who have made Family Excellence such an important part of the EFL story.”
There is the corporate language one expects at a twentieth anniversary, but the underlying point is sound. A football club can spend heavily trying to manufacture relevance later; creating a good early experience is the tidier route.
EFL Clubs will put families behind the numbers
Throughout 2026/27, the EFL plans to highlight the Clubs, supporters, families and staff who have shaped the Scheme.
That is the right editorial territory for the milestone because the strongest evidence of a family programme is not a logo or a presentation deck. It is the people who kept coming back.
Twenty seasons on, Family Excellence has reached the age at which it can be judged less by its intentions and more by the habits it helped create. The 73% rise in junior season ticket sales gives the EFL a useful statistic.
The families still making matchday part of family life give it the better story.
