Elite Player Performance Plan

EastStandBlue · Feb 15, 2011

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...demy-system-to-help-top-schoolboy-talent.html

So, this is the EPL's new scheme to restructure youth development. Effectively, it's a plan to increase the amount of coaching that players aged 9-16 by awarding clubs with fully fledged academies more power.

There's a real danger here that these clubs will look to flout these rules, though. Scudamore is talking about how EPL clubs look for talent overseas because English players are overpriced, so they want to implement a system where the cream rises to the top, giving these clubs the power to take players from clubs graded lower on the hierachy.

It's a fairly disgusting attitude to take, because clubs like Crewe survive on the fees they receive. Without the £3m they got for Ashton, they'd have been in serious trouble, so this runs the risk of seriously capping revenue streams for these clubs.

I predict a monumental fall-out happening over this...

EastStandBlue · Oct 20, 2011

Or, you know, just lie back and take it...

EPPP was passed through today, with 46 voting in favour, 22 voting against it, three no-shows and an abstention.

The actual remuneration for players joining Premier League clubs is actually nothing short of disgusting. Clubs will now receive £3,000 for every year the player has been at the club between the ages of nine and 11, with between £12,500 and £40,000 for every year between the ages of 12 and 16 depending on the original club's category.

This means that, under those guidelines, Luton would've received just £3,000 from Arsenal for Jack Wilshere and, although I believe we fetched in the region of £100,000 for Della-Verde from Fulham, we would've received a fraction of that.

MK Shrimper · Oct 20, 2011

Its only a matter of time before the majority of clubs in the UK go under. This is just another nail in the coffin.

Pubey · Oct 20, 2011

Are they relaxing the 90min rule as well? This is a bad thing. What is being encouraged is more and more youngsters are getting on the books at big clubs, and having an expectation that they'll make it as a pro footballer, when in fact the odds are massively stacked against them. They don't try as hard at school, they don't make it at the top level and they're cast away. Some will trickle down to lower league clubs (a la Moussa etc) whilst still young but it's not common.

Clubs like United will have age teams from Under 6 up to Under 18, and could in theory have 30 kids per group (360 kids). Not all of them are going to be premier league class, but the money means they can have a strip mining approach to finding gems. These rules will do nothing to stop this, but also allow and youngsters who show a little bit of promise to be tapped up (because they always always are) for the price of a few days of Rooney's wages. With European Super League, Game 39, and the 'no relegation' idea... it's just seeing the PL move completely away from normal football.

EastStandBlue · Oct 20, 2011

Pubey said:
Are they relaxing the 90min rule as well? This is a bad thing. What is being encouraged is more and more youngsters are getting on the books at big clubs, and having an expectation that they'll make it as a pro footballer, when in fact the odds are massively stacked against them. They don't try as hard at school, they don't make it at the top level and they're cast away. Some will trickle down to lower league clubs (a la Moussa etc) whilst still young but it's not common.

Clubs like United will have age teams from Under 6 up to Under 18, and could in theory have 30 kids per group (360 kids). Not all of them are going to be premier league class, but the money means they can have a strip mining approach to finding gems. These rules will do nothing to stop this, but also allow and youngsters who show a little bit of promise to be tapped up (because they always always are) for the price of a few days of Rooney's wages. With European Super League, Game 39, and the 'no relegation' idea... it's just seeing the PL move completely away from normal football.

The 90 minute rule is no more. Clubs can now rehouse youngsters from across the country. There will, however, be independent scrutiny and observations of academies, like that seen in the Bundesliga, which will enforce the amount of education that players receive.

Clubs like United already have vastly over-populated academies. It wouldn't surprise me if Southend had in excess of 360 kids "attached", whether it be through the CoE squads or the shadow squads. I know in the height of their financial troubles Portsmouth had to axe swathes of its development programme, rumoured to involve 1,000+ youngsters to varying degrees.

Pubey · Oct 20, 2011

EastStandBlue said:
The 90 minute rule is no more. Clubs can now rehouse youngsters from across the country. There will, however, be independent scrutiny and observations of academies, like that seen in the Bundesliga, which will enforce the amount of education that players receive.

Clubs like United already have vastly over-populated academies. It wouldn't surprise me if Southend had in excess of 360 kids "attached", whether it be through the CoE squads or the shadow squads. I know in the height of their financial troubles Portsmouth had to axe swathes of its development programme, rumoured to involve 1,000+ youngsters to varying degrees.

The educational aspect is one that really interests me. One of the carrots that gets dangled to parents when looking to re-house them is getting them into good catchment areas/better schools etc. In terms of grades they might not be affected, but I think there must be psychological issues and I can see why a lad of 16 who gets some good GCSE's and is suddenly dropped by United could end up being disenfranchised with life and develop the attitude that 'hard work isn't enough, so why bother'.

Beefy · Oct 20, 2011

I know this won't be a popular opinion but I think I'm in favour of this. Obviously the headlines don't make great reading from a lower-league perspective but I see this as something which is going to see more Clubs adopt the same sort of youth policy that we have here with close links to the main academies and a focus on picking up and developing players who have dropped out at various stages from the bigger clubs.

Yes, we may miss out on a certain amount of money for the likes of Della-Verde in the future but I don't think any system which enables profit-making organisations to 'earn' hundreds of thousands, or even millions of pounds, due to their claims of ownership over children should be overly lauded. Parents should have the right to give their children the best opportunity to reach their potential and if they think that that is by getting them trained by Manchester United instead of Southend United then as a society I think it's difficult to argue that they should be prevented from doing so.

Plus lower-league Clubs are mainly packed full of players who they won't have spent a penny on the youth development of so it's not like lower-league clubs get abused by the system.

The way that Clubs will get the maximum amount of benefit from this will be to become a Category One Academy, which means substantial investment in facilities and training. Getting more players trained at that level should increase standards across the board because no matter how many hundreds of players Manchester United train they can only field 11. The remainder will filter down the pyramid as has always been the case.