Elite Player Performance Plan

[gavlin]

There is an interesting article in the south west Independent about a plan to establish a new network of youth football development. Its the brainchild of the premier league and two people involved are Richard Scudamore (BCFC fan) and Ged Roddy (ex Bath Uni Director). They are looking to get rid of the reserve leagues, create U21 leagues, revolutionise the academy system and abolish the existing Centres of Excellence. The Academy centres will have to take more responibility for much of the education of their young players from the age of 12 upwards which would mean building classrooms and employing full time coaches and medical staff (i.e football colleges under one complex). The estimated cost to run the new academy is £2.5 million per year without the initial capital expenditure.

If this goes ahead in the next two years I wonder what City's decision would be especially if they are pushing ahead with a new stadium.

[pride of the west]

When i heard this plan i thought it was a joke to be fair.

Basically the prem clubs will get the pick of the nations best kids earlier than anyone else.

I cant see any team outside the prem will go for top academy status due to the costs. Aparently the 2.5 mil a season is a very conservative figure as well.

We will fall into the second academy bracket without much more investment needed, if any actually.

The snag is being in the second tier means we cannot contract kids to the club until 16 i believe. By which time the better kids have been tapped up. I think as it stands we can contract a kid to the club at maybe 12?

Maybe it will produce better players for england as stated in the brief who knows. What i do know is the little club gets shafted again.

[BrizzleRed]

What's new? The Prem clubs have been calling the shots for years and the greedy b******ds won't be satisfied until every other professional club has gone bust. They're a blight on football imho

When i heard this plan i thought it was a joke to be fair.

Basically the prem clubs will get the pick of the nations best kids earlier than anyone else.

I cant see any team outside the prem will go for top academy status due to the costs. Aparently the 2.5 mil a season is a very conservative figure as well.

We will fall into the second academy bracket without much more investment needed, if any actually.

The snag is being in the second tier means we cannot contract kids to the club until 16 i believe. By which time the better kids have been tapped up. I think as it stands we can contract a kid to the club at maybe 12?

Maybe it will produce better players for england as stated in the brief who knows. What i do know is the little club gets shafted again.

[spudski]

The initiative is to get youth players in line with the rest of Europe. English youth train a 1/3 less hours than our Spanish, French, Portugese and German counterparts. No wonder we are miles behind. The 90 minute travel rule is to be abolished too, so we would have a wider choice of kids to look at.

With the increase in hours coached, Clubs will be encouraged to bring in more coaches.

Here's some poignient facts for you. In England there are only 2,769 coaches holding A and B pro badges. Spain has 23,995. Italy 29,420. Germany 34,970 and France 17,588.

And we wonder why we can't develop home grown talent in this country. Hardly any qualified coaches and the kids train a 1/3 less hours than the rest of Europe. No wonder we're shite.