Paris is striving to have its academy players spend more time away from the digital world and closer to the… real world, which is why it has decided to restrict the use of cell phones by young players at the club’s training center.
With the start of the school year, a “digital detox” program will be implemented at the campus in Poissy, where approximately 140 youth players live. The strictest measures will apply to pre-academy players, ages 11 to 15. Specifically, from Sunday evening through Friday afternoon, they will be allowed to use their phones for only one hour a day, between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., and only if their rooms are clean and tidy. The rest of the time, the devices will be stored in a case provided by the teams for away games.
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Paris had already required young players to hand in their phones at night and now wants to go further to combat what it considers excessive screen time. “This measure may seem drastic,” the club stated. “But it seems quite beneficial when you consider how harmful phone addiction can be for a young person—and even more so for a high-level athlete,” explains Mendi Rahoui, the club’s director of training.
Players aged 16 and older will be subject to less strict rules, while still being encouraged to reduce their screen time. To support this digital detox, Paris officials want to increase the number of activities offered at the facilities. As part of this effort, they have installed pianos at various locations throughout the center.
The association does not want to limit the experiment to a simple ban and plans to evaluate its results quickly. “An initial assessment will be conducted in mid-September with medical staff and psychologists to understand the young people’s feelings and adjust the program if necessary. We don’t want to simply abandon them and turn this into a purely coercive measure,” Rahoui emphasized.
*photo source: AP
