Academy Status

[Svlad Cjelli]

So not even 40k? Lovely stuff. Complete waste IMO. Anyone who looks top draw at a young age will get poached by the prem. Utterly diabolical this went through and completely anti-football.

For information only, those compensation rates are for each year that the trainee has spend at the lower-category academy, not the total compensation price. There is also additional compensation based on later appearances made and a share of future transfer fees.

Other pieces of information relevant to this debate are that the costs of a Category One academy (no such thing as "Category A") are estimated at £2.25M a year in year one, rising to £2.5M in year four. EPPP has only been agreed for a four-year period from Oct 2011. For a Category One academy, The Premier League will provide grant funding of 33% for this period.

A Category One academy is exempt from the 90-minute rule as long as they provide residential and educational facilities. These don't need to be on-site, they can be done in partnership. Some clubs are expected to open "free schools" using new legislation.

Under EPPP clubs, can offer promising players a Scholarship Contract at age 14 - this exempts them from EPPP compensation rates by treating any subsequent move - at any age - as a transfer. Academies also have the option of "creating a market" for young player's they're likely to lose - thus starting a bidding war and getting more money than they would just with EPPP compensation.

It was estimated in October at the time of the FL vote that there would be no more than 10-12 Category One academies, but as this is brand new no-one actually knows.

[Red]

A successful academy is one of the few parts of a football club that has the potential to generate real revenue

Not sure what you mean by the that - any "income" from this academy will still be dwarfed by sponsorship, ticket sales, TV/Media deals and merchandise surely?

Dwarfed is a strong word Red, any revenue on top of what you were expecting is to be welcomed though.

I fully considered the gravitas of the word before using it, don't worry about that.

[FiNeRaIn]

So not even 40k? Lovely stuff. Complete waste IMO. Anyone who looks top draw at a young age will get poached by the prem. Utterly diabolical this went through and completely anti-football.

For information only, those compensation rates are for each year that the trainee has spend at the lower-category academy, not the total compensation price. There is also additional compensation based on later appearances made and a share of future transfer fees.

Other pieces of information relevant to this debate are that the costs of a Category One academy (no such thing as "Category A") are estimated at £2.25M a year in year one, rising to £2.5M in year four. EPPP has only been agreed for a four-year period from Oct 2011. For a Category One academy, The Premier League will provide grant funding of 33% for this period.

A Category One academy is exempt from the 90-minute rule as long as they provide residential and educational facilities. These don't need to be on-site, they can be done in partnership. Some clubs are expected to open "free schools" using new legislation.

Under EPPP clubs, can offer promising players a Scholarship Contract at age 14 - this exempts them from EPPP compensation rates by treating any subsequent move - at any age - as a transfer. Academies also have the option of "creating a market" for young player's they're likely to lose - thus starting a bidding war and getting more money than they would just with EPPP compensation.

It was estimated in October at the time of the FL vote that there would be no more than 10-12 Category One academies, but as this is brand new no-one actually knows.

Thats a useful post, thank you.

Still completely irks me that the likes of Bale/Walcott/Sig/Wickham,etc will be going for much, much less than previously. Its also worrying that because of that then youth players become much lower risk for prem clubs. Surely, they'll be more likely to say....oh well its only 1 mill if we poach him and it doesn't work out and be far more willing to snag players from academies.

[Vision]

So not even 40k? Lovely stuff. Complete waste IMO. Anyone who looks top draw at a young age will get poached by the prem. Utterly diabolical this went through and completely anti-football.

For information only, those compensation rates are for each year that the trainee has spend at the lower-category academy, not the total compensation price. There is also additional compensation based on later appearances made and a share of future transfer fees.

Other pieces of information relevant to this debate are that the costs of a Category One academy (no such thing as "Category A") are estimated at £2.25M a year in year one, rising to £2.5M in year four. EPPP has only been agreed for a four-year period from Oct 2011. For a Category One academy, The Premier League will provide grant funding of 33% for this period.

A Category One academy is exempt from the 90-minute rule as long as they provide residential and educational facilities. These don't need to be on-site, they can be done in partnership. Some clubs are expected to open "free schools" using new legislation.

Under EPPP clubs, can offer promising players a Scholarship Contract at age 14 - this exempts them from EPPP compensation rates by treating any subsequent move - at any age - as a transfer. Academies also have the option of "creating a market" for young player's they're likely to lose - thus starting a bidding war and getting more money than they would just with EPPP compensation.

It was estimated in October at the time of the FL vote that there would be no more than 10-12 Category One academies, but as this is brand new no-one actually knows.

Thats a useful post, thank you.

Still completely irks me that the likes of Bale/Walcott/Sig/Wickham,etc will be going for much, much less than previously. Its also worrying that because of that then youth players become much lower risk for prem clubs. Surely, they'll be more likely to say....oh well its only 1 mill if we poach him and it doesn't work out and be far more willing to snag players from academies.

They won't though will they if they sign the scholarship contract Dirk mentions?

Under EPPP clubs, can offer promising players a Scholarship Contract at age 14 - this exempts them from EPPP compensation rates by treating any subsequent move - at any age - as a transfer. Academies also have the option of "creating a market" for young player's they're likely to lose - thus starting a bidding war and getting more money than they would just with EPPP compensation

.

[Hoop Blah]

Also, none of those players were take from their clubs under a youth contract and under compensation.

They were all under a professional contract and so commanded a proper transfer to be agreed by the two clubs. They wouldn't have been affected by the change in rules. I think better examples would be the likes of John Bostock (I think, can't remember the full details of his age/contract), Gareth Barry and probably Jermain Defoe. As I said earlier, the only RFC example I can think of is Shaun Allaway. We got £300k for him and he never made it.

[Hoop Blah]

Under EPPP clubs, can offer promising players a Scholarship Contract at age 14 - this exempts them from EPPP compensation rates by treating any subsequent move - at any age - as a transfer. Academies also have the option of "creating a market" for young player's they're likely to lose - thus starting a bidding war and getting more money than they would just with EPPP compensation.

This was the bit I couldn't quite remember.

It means clubs just need to make sure they stay on top of getting their house in order and making sure they get their good prospects on these agreements to ensure they don't get taken from under their noses.

[Svlad Cjelli]

There is one other - crucial - bit of protection for smaller clubs (i.e. lower-level academies) which has been missed by most critics of EPPP. Including visitors to this board from South London

And that's that there is a limit to the number of trainees which any academy can have at every age group. This has not changed from the previous youth development system, and is :

Age Groups Under 9 to Under 14 inclusive – 30 in each age group

Age Groups Under 15 to Under 16 inclusive – 20 in each age group

Age groups Under 17 to Under 21 inclusive – 15 in each age group

So this means that Category One academies can't cheaply hoover up *all* the talent - because they only have a finite number of places available at each age group. This is probably the most critical safeguard for non-Category One academies.

[Simon's Church]

If for instance Chelsea or Arsenal came in for a 13/14 year old on our books under the current regulations, how would that work?

[Svlad Cjelli]

If for instance Chelsea or Arsenal came in for a 13/14 year old on our books under the current regulations, how would that work?

All of the below assumes all the transitions to EPPP have taken place (it was only voted in place in October so is still bedding in and being implemented.

At age 14 there's a break point, where the below can happen.
(1) we either have to re-sign that youngster to an academy contract,
(2) we offer them them a scholarship contract
(3) we don't offer them a contract and release them
(4) we lose them to another (higher-level) academy.

If (1) happens then they are still liable to be lured away by a bigger academy, but that can't happen until the next renewal (2 years, I think)
If (2) happens they're out of the EPPP system and if they subsequently move it's treated as a transfer
If (3) happens then they're free to do whatever (including being picked up by Category 4 academy at age 16)
If (4) happens then we get the EPPP compensation payment - which is a fixed sum for each year they've been with us (whether they're the next Gylfi Sigurdsson or the next Bas Savage - that's the contentious bit about EPPP!). So if we know that's likely to happen our best best it to tout that player around several academies in the hope that the agreed payment from that bidding war is greater than EPPP compensation would be.

The break point at age 14 where players can be released/re-signed has been described as "a great day for agents" - because it effectively makes all kids potentially free for poaching at that age.

[Hoop Blah]

If for instance Chelsea or Arsenal came in for a 13/14 year old on our books under the current regulations, how would that work?

I can't remember the exact rules and what agreement they have to have with your academy but the club would either agree an appropriate fee or receive compensation set by a tribunal. I'm not sure what levels that compensation could rise to but the deal for 3 Luton lads the other week gives an idea. The fee the clubs agreed was a potential £1m for all 3, and I guess would only get that high if all 3 are major successes.

One of the reasons Palace fans are so outraged by this is probably because they're still a bit sore over the compensation they got for Bostock when he left them for Spurs (something like £750k for a 16 year old who'd played first team football for them).

[Simon's Church]

Ah ok, thanks guys.

[Z175]

Academy inspectors are in this weekend. Fingers crossed we'll get the nod, though I doubt it as I'm sure they'll be biased towards "big clubs". Our hastily assembled portacabins might not seal the deal.

However the carrot of the new TSI funded academy in a new location might be enough. If Zingarevich delivers this I would have thought it would be a huge step towards keeping the club in the top echelons of English football, especially with FFP rearing itself on the horizon.

http://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/footb ... ls_academy

[SCIAG]

Academy inspectors are in this weekend. Fingers crossed we'll get the nod, though I doubt it as I'm sure they'll be biased towards "big clubs".

I don't think that is a fair accusation at all. Newcastle have been overlooked, for example, though Middlesbrough are Category 1.

[maffff]

Apparently missed out;

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/pre ... /3699412/-?

Arsenal, Liverpool & Tottenham win top Academy grade but Reading miss out
The Premier League has now completed its audit of the 22 clubs who applied for the leading Category One status, with four of them suffering a major funding blow

Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham have been awarded the top grade in the Premier League’s opening round of assessment for its new youth development system, Goal.comcan reveal.
The three big-hitters were among the clubs who applied for the leading Category One status in the second tranche of audits that have recently been completed.

But Reading have become the fourth of the 22 clubs in total that were monitored, 17 of whom were from last season’s top division and five from the Championship, to suffer the blow of failing to achieve their Category One aim.

Goal.com revealed last August that Newcastle United, Blackburn Rovers and Crystal Palace were the three of the 12 clubs inspected in the second half of last season to have missed out on Category One status.

This will have considerable financial consequences and inhibits the academies’ capacity to produce future first-team players to follow in the footsteps of star graduates like Andy Carroll, Steven Taylor, Phil Jones, Wilfried Zaha, Victor Moses and Nathaniel Clyne.

The other 10 clubs were inspected by the league’s independent standards organisation in the opening half of this season and the Professional Game Board has now ratified the recommendations of the audit team.

Goal.com understands that Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Everton, Aston Villa, West Brom, Norwich City, Bolton Wanderers and Sunderland have joined Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Fulham, Southampton, West Ham, Stoke City, Middlesbrough and Wolves in achieving the top Academy grade.

In a major funding blow, the four clubs who missed out have been categorised as Category Two. Watford had been among the initial 23 Category One applicants but announced last August that they had withdrawn their application to downsize their academy and apply for Category Three status.

Under the funding mechanism for the new system – called the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) – each Category One club is projected to receive a minimum £775,000-a-year in Premier League funding from the youth development pot. Category Two clubs will receive a minimum £480,000, Category Three clubs £210,000 and Category Four clubs £100,000.

Each club is graded according to criteria such as facilities, productivity rates, coaching staff and funding, with a fixed tariff paid for players under 18 according to how much time has been invested in them.

The Premier League insist that the initial grade is only a ‘provisional categorisation’ and that clubs will be re-assessed on an ‘ongoing basis’ to ensure that meet the requirements of EPPP.

Nevertheless, the clubs have already started receiving funds from the League and, if they are re-categorised, the funding will not be back-dated.

A number of Premier League clubs have taken the step of announcing their Category One status but others, including Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Manchester United and Chelsea have not done so.

[MouldyRoyal]

Bollocks.

[SPARTA]

It wont come as a surprise to the club. We weren't ready for it and although we have spent a lot on upgrades and were given an extension to bring the facilities up to speed, we are still some way off the standard required. I'm sure we'll continue to invest and hope to get Cat 1 next season.

[maffff]

It wont come as a surprise to the club. We weren't ready for it and although we have spent a lot on upgrades and were given an extension to bring the facilities up to speed, we are still some way off the standard required. I'm sure we'll continue to invest and hope to get Cat 1 next season.

Yeah, shame but not shocking.

Isn't it every two years they get assessed, so we have to wait for 2014/15?

[SPARTA]

It wont come as a surprise to the club. We weren't ready for it and although we have spent a lot on upgrades and were given an extension to bring the facilities up to speed, we are still some way off the standard required. I'm sure we'll continue to invest and hope to get Cat 1 next season.

Yeah, shame but not shocking.

Isn't it every two years they get assessed, so we have to wait for 2014/15?

Not sure mate, but that sounds ideal for us if so.

[maffff]

Reviewed every 3 years. So 2015/16.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Reviewed every 3 years. So 2015/16.

Having said that, one of the criticisms of EPPP is that it has, so far, only been set-up for a 3-year period. So the assumption is that it'll be reviewed - but really no-one actually knows for sure.