Currently, in a very piecemeal fashion, clubs are being graded on the quality of their youth system.  It is understood 23 clubs applied for Category 1 status, 17 of which were Premier League clubs in 2011/12; Crystal Palace, West Ham Utd, Reading, Southampton and Watford are believed to be 5 of the other applicants.

The process of categorisation

It involves clubs applying for a specific category, the FA explains the selection process as:

‘The Category of a Club’s Academy shall be determined by the percentage that the Club scores on the Audit Tool as determined by its ISO Audit as follows:

• Category 1, the Club must achieve a score of at least 75% on the Audit Tool;
• Category 2, the Club must achieve a score of between 65% and 74% on the Audit Tool;
• Category 3, the Club must achieve a score of between 50% and 64% on the Audit Tool;
• Category 4, the Club must achieve a score of between 35% and 49% on the Audit Tool provided that in each case it also complies with the minimum mandatory criteria applicable to the relevant Category.’

Of course, understanding this statement is based on the pre-requisite of us knowing what the “Audit Tool” is.  Again, the FA states :

“Audit Tool” means the online application maintained by the League and approved by the PGB for the purpose of undertaking (in particular by the ISO) the evaluation and audit of Academies by the assessment of:

• (a) the extent to which a Club meets the minimum mandatory criteria for Academies set out in these Rules;
• (b) the extent to which it implements recommended best practice criteria which exceed the minimum mandatory criteria and which are set out in the Audit Tool;
• (c) its Productivity Profile.’

It is here that the necessity for this blog becomes starkly apparent.  There is no simple way for football supporters to learn about the process of how their club’s academy will categorised.  It is a complex trail of breadcrumbs, wrapped in a jargonised riddle; hopefully by the end of this blog post it will have been solved.

The tangible financial effect

Clubs granted academy status will be awarded the following funding from the Premier League youth development pot:

• Category 1 – club receives a minimum £775,000-a-year;
• Category 2 – club receives a minimum £480,000-a-year;
• Category 3 – club receives a minimum £210,000-a-year;
• Category 4 – club receives a minimum £100,000-a-year.

The length of the license

Once categorised, the licence to operate an academy will be for 3 years unless some kind of “rule breaking” occurs.  Reviews will begin every 2 years

How the EPPP came about
The EPPP was announced by the FA almost exactly one year ago. In the year that has passed there has been very little information released and very few articles written to tell us about what it is. The programme is packaged as a new age way of improving the youth of English football. Commissioned as part of the fall-out from the national side’s failure at the 2010 World Cup, the conclusion appeared to be that English players lacked the technical qualities required to be successful on the international stage. Below are two (very long) FA documents outlining the EPPP. Interestingly, the official youth guidelines for 2012/13 is not easily discoverable on the FA website and not downloadable unless you change the file name to .pdf (exacerbating the lack of access):

Raising Our Game
2012-13 Youth Development Rules

How the clubs came to agree to it
Before the EPPP, fees would be set by tribunal if clubs couldn’t agree on one if a player under the age of 24 decided to move at the end of his contract. This was widely accepted to already under-value a player meaning the selling club would not receive what they deserved for the development of said player. Now, the fee will be set by a string of criteria which grants the selling club no negotiation rights and players under the age of 17 are most effected as they are not eligible to sign professional papers. The key factor in the negotiations between the Football League and Premier League was the ability of the latter to use the ‘youth development fund’ it awards to the Football League clubs as a bargaining chip. They were more able to manoeuvre into this situation because of the Football League signing a significantly reduced TV deal at the end of the 2010/11 season. The threat of ‘sign-up to EPPP or we take away the money we give you’ forced the clubs into a corner and they signed the deal.

So how much will clubs receive for a player?
£3,000-per-year for every year of a player’s development between the ages of nine and 11
Fee per year from 12 to 16 will depend on the selling club’s academy status – but ranges between £12,500 and £40,000
EPPP will lead to the introduction of a four-tier academy system next season.
It will range from category one “super academies” down to category four status, where clubs will pick up 16-year-olds that have been released by other teams.
Clubs with category one status will have programmes that vastly increase the contact time with young players, with the aim of ensuring the most-talented youngsters have the best opportunity to fulfil their potential.

The 90-minute rule
Before EPPP, an academy player must live within a 90 minute drive of the club they play for. This rule as been eradicated.

The aim of this blog is to act as the go between to give information to football supporters. The idea behind this is the distinct lack of information that has been made readily available to fans of clubs. Had this been the case, there should have major uproar amongst communities of football supporters at the prospect of their club academy developing a player into a possible international superstar and then losing them for a fee that they have no ability to negotiate on. Moreover, the basis for the project is the inherent assumption that all the best coaches are at the biggest clubs i.e. Premiership clubs. To make such a sweeping judgement is both inaccurate and unfair but a plan produced by the Football Association in conjunction with the English Premier League is automatically going to be prejudicial towards the other 72 football league clubs. This blog will also include a ‘jargon buster’ section to help guide readers through the information so documents can be better understood whilst having a continual reference point for calculating how much a club would be due should a player leave.