In 2012, the youth football development system in England introduced a new system. This was named the EPPP, or Elite Player Performance Plan. It was introduced by the premier league to try and improve the quality of home-grown talent by sorting the various professional club academies into categories. The grading of the categories depended on assessment of certain key areas. These are “Productivity Rates, Training Facilities, Coaching, Education and Welfare Provision”.
The higher the category the academy achieves, based on these criteria, then the more money it receives from the FA and the Premier league. At the time of writing, there are about 24 Academies with category 1 status, and a further 22 with category 2 status. Most, but not all, of these being in the Premiership and the Championship. The remaining EFL clubs are mainly Category 3 and sometimes Category 4. These lists are available on line, and every club has their academy re-assessed by the FA every three years.
This allocation of academies into the various categories is important because different rules apply depending which category an academy is classed as. See the table below. For instance, a Cat 1 academies provide more training hours than a Cat 2 academy.
Category | Foundation Phase 9-11 | Youth Development Phase U12-U16 | Professional Development Phase U17-U21 |
1 | 4 coaching hours per week rising to 8 hours for older Academy Players | 10 coaching hours per week rising to 12 hours for older Academy Players | 14 coaching hours per week reducing to 12 hours for Academy Players who have commitments to the professional squad during the Professional Development Phase |
2 | 3 coaching hours per week rising to 5 hours for older Academy Players | 6 coaching hours per week rising to 12 hours for older Academy Players | 14 coaching hours per week reducing to 12 hours for Academy Players who have commitments to the professional squad during the Professional Development Phase |
Source – EFL Youth Development Charter Guide
So, here at UK Football Academy Finder, we hope that this has helped you understand why not all football academies in the football league are the same.