Marcia Lewis, the mother of Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly, is not from a football family. She did not grow up around the sport and she did not follow it during the early years of her son’s development in north London. “I didn’t even know what the Premier League was,” she says.

It was, therefore, something of a shock when she received a call from a football agent who wanted to represent her son. Myles was 11 at the time. A year later she received another call, this time from a major sports brand that wanted to discuss a sponsorship deal.

What is a mother supposed to do in such a situation? What is the correct way of dealing with an agent? What are the legalities and regulations involved? What should she tell Myles? Lewis had no points of reference, no easy answers to these questions and nowhere to turn.

“My instinct was that it didn’t feel right,” she tells Telegraph Sport. “And I felt like there wasn’t really a place I could go. I didn’t know anyone in the industry. I didn’t have a clue. So I actually felt quite alone. What decisions should we be making?”

Lewis, whose son has broken into the Arsenal first-team this season and was controversially sent off against Wolves on Saturday, eventually found support from a few parents of older boys, but she has not forgotten those initial feelings of uncertainty and unease. And as time passed, she met more families who were experiencing similar struggles. “As parents, we are entering into a business that we know nothing about,” she says.

Lewis decided to immerse herself in the world of football. She achieved a master’s degree in football business, qualified as an agent herself and, she says, “listened to Talksport every day”. From there, she went on to launch No1Fan.club, a community that provides support and education for parents of children in the male and female academy systems.

To speak to Lewis and her colleague Kate Iorpenda – whose sons Tom and George now play for Huddersfield Town and Ipswich Town respectively – is to realise how many families are in desperate need of this help. Football can be a murky and confusing world, and that is especially the case at academy level, where players are often scouted and recruited long before the age of eight.

‘When my son was released I felt unprepared’

Iorpenda, who works in education, became involved with No1Fan.club when she was put in contact with Lewis after speaking to parents at Brighton & Hove Albion’s academy. Both of Iorpenda’s sons had played for Brighton and she is particularly focused on the process of young players finding new clubs after they are let go.

“When my first son was released from Brighton, I felt really unprepared,” Iorpenda says. “The club helps you to a point but then you are on your own. How do you have conversations with clubs? How do you choose which part of the country to go to? How do you get those questions answered?

“When clubs started to call about my son, because there was quite a lot of interest, I just didn’t know how to have those conversations. I felt quite isolated and stressed. Having gone through that, when my second son was released two years later I was much more assertive. Everything about it was much more exciting.”

Lewis and Iorpenda are “kindred spirits” who both believe that more can be done to prepare parents, and by extension the players themselves, for the challenges that are presented by academy football.

Those challenges are numerous. In some cases, they are extraordinary. No1Fan.club recently came across a situation where a young academy player wanted to buy a car with the money he was earning from his club, but the parents said no because they wanted to spend it on a car for themselves. “It can be very sensitive,” says Lewis, who has launched an anonymous survey for parents to help further understand the issues facing families in the footballing world.

Other challenges include offers of inducements to parents from agencies, or the thorny issue of boot deals. “Most people don’t know the ruling,” says Lewis. An agent, for example, cannot represent a player in discussions with a club until they are 16. But that same agent can represent that player, at any age, in negotiations with a potential sponsor.

“What you end up with is an agent in your life, because they helped you with a boot deal,” says Lewis. “You are not stuck legally, but you could very well be stuck in quite an awkward position. In those years [before the player turns 16], you have built up a relationship and they are now expecting to represent you.”

There are also significant issues around education: there is inconsistency between clubs on how much time the academy players spend out of school, and what that actually looks like.

Separately, the regulatory issues of compensation for youth players and the small print of academy agreements are confusing – and worrying – for families with no experience in the field. Especially at times of change.

“I have seen too many parents wish they had a next step after leaving a club, and not getting anything for their child because they didn’t know what to do,” says Iorpenda. “The biggest challenge is that a lot of people have not thought about or prepared for what happens when it [the journey at one club] does come to an end.”

‘Lack of resources inside girls’ academies is off the scale’

No1Fan.club’s work is not limited to the men’s game. They are also working with parents of girls, who are trying to make sense of the women’s development pathway. “The lack of resources inside those academies is really off the scale compared to the boys,” says Lewis, who adds that parents have made her aware of tricky issues in the women’s game related to puberty and menstrual cycles, among other difficulties.

Football is a strange business and it can be resistant to change. In some cases, it seems that clubs don’t necessarily appreciate the value of parents being more informed about the processes involved in the youth game. No1Fan.club is helping to arm parents with the knowledge and skills that are needed to handle life in academy football, but clubs across the country are not always welcoming.

“For some clubs there is that sense that they don’t want to open the door,” says Iorpenda. “Because it can all get really complicated. But if you work with the parents, and help them feel safe, confident and in control, the kids are going to benefit.”

It is highly possible that their role as mothers – rather than fathers or agents – is leading to more resistance. “There are no mothers who have been through this journey who are doing what we are doing,” says Lewis. “We are the first. Sometimes being the first makes people feel uneasy.

“You could Google search ‘agent mothers’ and you will always get the negative story of the mum who ruined their son’s career. But that is just not the truth. We are just not visible in the industry. Even the coaches on the women’s side tend to be men. So we are unusual in that sense.”

No1Fan.club is self-funded and it costs £3.99 per month to join their community, which gives access to workshops, experts and other resources. The subscription fee goes towards covering the costs of the business, with Lewis working up to 17 hours a day on building the platform. “Myles often comes in and asks, ‘Mum, are you still at your laptop?’” she says.

Clearly, this is not straightforward work. But the end goal is clear. These mothers want to show there is a place to go for families who are struggling to navigate the choppy waters of youth football. The more informed these families are, Lewis and Iorpenda strongly believe, the better life will be for the next generation of footballers.

The No1Fan.club survey is running until the end of January. Complete it here.