The Club have re-structured the Academy set up as part of their application to gain Category 1 status. Basically, the youngsters will be banded into three age groups and have announced the coaches to lead up the U21 group (Kit Symons) and the U18s (Steve Wigley) - http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2012/July/AcademyUpdate.aspx We're still waiting to hear whether the prestigious Category 1 has been granted but an awful lot of time (and money) has been put into the project and the Club are confident. Fingers crossed it happens.
Well, I know that category one academies were projected to receive around £775,000 a year from the Premier League, whereas category 2 will receive around £480,000. I also remember hearing that the 90 minute catchment area didn't apply to category one academies. Also worth mentioning the appointment of Steve Wigley. I think he's a good appointment to work alongside Kit Symons, and his England connections could help some Fulham youngsters get international exposure.
Basically it puts a club on an elite footing and first chance in terms of getting young players signed up. Perhaps more importantly it allows a club to join U21 and U18 'super' Leagues (more competive quality games for the young players). The rest is a more longwinded explanation - The FA have introduced an Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) which focuses on youth development and has the broad aim to free up movement of younger players by establishing a hierarchy of football academies in the UK, and fixing the transfer fees between academies. However an Academy has to be Licensed by the FA. There are four gradings of Academy - Category 1 being the highest. Granting of a Licence is by no means a formality and clubs have to have structures and systems in place before making an application. A rigorous independent audit then judge clubs against ten criteria. Namely, 1. Vision and strategy 2. Leadership and management 3. Coaching and development programme 4. Education and welfare provision 5. Games programme 6. Athletic development programme 7. Player development programme On acceptance, compliance with Codes of Practice must be adhered to. Category 1 academies must have : * high contact time with young players. For example, Under 9–11 yrs. – not less than 3 hrs. (2 sessions) Under 12–16 yrs. – not less than 5 hrs. (3 sessions) Under 17–21 yrs.* – not less than 12 hrs. (*not applicable to players in the club’s first team squad) * require a minimum of 18 full-time staff * an operational budget of £2.5 M. (although £775k of this is funded by the FA) Academies will be reviewed every two years and re-categorised if necessary. The benefits of having Category 1 status are : * first choice of ‘elite’ youngsters ( a wee bit like in American football * being attractive to the youngster/parents because of the guaranteed environment [Here a big change is the doing away with the "90-minute" rule – currently clubs are only allowed to sign players aged under 18 if they reside within 90 minutes travel of the training facility.] * fixing the transfer fees between academies * Premier League and Championship clubs with Category 1 status academies will soon be entitled to join newly formed, highly competitive U21s and U18s leagues Involvement in these leagues is, arguably, the most significant benefit to having Category 1 Status - I’ll post about that separately. Not all Premiership clubs have applied or have been granted Cat 1 - I’m not entirely sure but I think 7 have been accredited and 8 are still in the pipeline, including us.
That they were, Surly. It's probably best to be clear though, that the "£775,000 received from the Premier League" is in fact a grant towards our £2.5m expenditure.
Here's a summary of the 4 Academy Categories (click on the picture to see a readable version - I need Bidley to explain how to show the full picture within the post)
All you need to do is paste the link to the picture into the comment box, and put please log in to view this image after, with no spaces.
Thanks Bidley, you make it sound so simple. Just a wee supplementary, is it correct that you don't also use
Some names I recognise there. I had no idea The Tank was so young! And Ronny Minkwitz is an absurdly cool name.
Fantastic News - The Club has been granted Academy Category 1 Status http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2012/July/Category1Status.aspx?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
With the new Academy structure there is no longer a Reserve Team (or Development Team as it was called). In this article Huw Jennings (Academy Director) explains a bit more about the set up - http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2012/July/ExcitingTimes.aspx
Another article by the Club about the new Academy structure, this time featuring Kit Symons - http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2012/August/ANewChapter.aspx Just as an aside, the Club recently recruited someone to develop their website. I believe there have been signs of improvent (more topical, fuller articles) and hopefully as the season starts there will be a section devoted to the Academy.
