And still the good news comes for Manchester City. The club’s Academy has been granted the top rating under the new Elite Players Performance Plan…
You won’t find too many anti-City brigade hacks fanfaring this latest terrific achievement for the club under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mansour. Yet Planet Blue is by now more than used to this fact when another ‘ruining football’ revelation bursts out of East Manchester.
The way this works is that the Elite Player Performance Plan, a youth development programme, was originally mooted by The Premier League and The Football League backed it up. The idea is that the EPPP liberates the movement of youth players by establishing a football academy hierarchy in Britain. Transfer fees are then fixed between academies.
One of the main EPPP objectives is to ‘Increase the number and quality of Home Grown Players gaining professional contracts in the clubs and playing first-team football at the highest level.’
According to The Premier League, a bonus for The Blues who have begun to build the stunning Etihad Campus is ‘the higher a club’s Category the more funding will be available to it and the EPPP will see the Premier League and FA invest more central income than ever before in Youth Development programmes across the country.
At this stage, in The Premier League, Fulham, Southampton, Stoke, Sunderland and West Ham’s academies all share Category One status with City.
The Citizens Chief Football Operations Officer, Brian Marwood told th’official site:
‘The club has a proud history of producing talent in-house and being granted EPPP Category One status is a testament to how seriously we take youth development.’
Liddle Ciddy’s three stars on our badge continue to shine. This is yet another hammer blow for Newco United who’s pre-season has become engulfed in the next stage of a potential club meltdown.
UPCOMING GAMES:
all times East Manchester
Sat 04 Aug 20h30 Wolfsburg, Volkswagen Arena, Friendly (ESPN TV)
Sun 05 Aug 19h00 Limerick, Jackman Park, Friendly
Sun 12 Aug 13h30 Chelsea, Villa Park, Community Shield
Sa 18 Aug 15h00 Southampton, The Etihad, PL
Sa 25 Aug 15h00 Liverpool, Anfield, PL
Sa 01 Sep 17h30 QPR, The Etihad, PL
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FIXTURES:
The draw for the 2012/13 Champions League Group Stage will take place in Monaco on Thursday, 30th August. The opening round of games will kick off in the week commencing Monday, 17th September.
Share this article
