Reading FC

Premier League inspectors are running the rule over Reading FC’s Academy this weekend
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Premier League inspectors grade Royals Academy

By Jonny Fordham
September 07, 2012

Premier League inspectors are running the rule over Reading’s Academy this weekend.

Manager Brian McDermott, director of football Nick Hammond and Academy boss Eamonn Dolan spent the day with officials from the new youth development scheme, the Elite Player Performance Plan yesterday.

Many of Royals’ rivals have already been marked by the assessors.

But the prolonged takeover of the club by new owner Anton Zingarevich meant that Reading were given special dispensation to get their house in order.

Working around the clock, staff have transformed Reading’s Hogwood Park training base this summer with the mission of gaining category 1 status.

New changing-rooms, gyms and classrooms have been installed at the training ground.

However, it is understood that although Royals have one of the most successful academies in British football, the club might have to be content with category 2 status for this season.

Teams who are at the top of the four-tier chain can sign players from any club, instead of fees being agreed by clubs or a tribunal.

The new ruling will state that players aged between 12 and 16 can be snapped up for as little as £40,000, depending on the selling club’s status.

If the Premier League decide that Reading are not quite ready to be given top status, then it is most likely that in 12 months’ time they will have upgraded to meet the required standard.

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Completely agree Harb. This is really poor from the top brass is our game!

TilehurstSouthbank, Tilehurst, Reading
07/09/2012 at 17:53

"Teams who are at the top of the four-tier chain can sign players from any club, instead of fees being agreed by clubs or a tribunal.

The new ruling will state that players aged between 12 and 16 can be snapped up for as little as £40,000, depending on the selling club’s status."

So the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. More utter madness from the PL & FA. Just how do they expect smaller clubs to stay in business? And when those clubs go bust, who is going to take over the invaluable role that they play of bringing youngsters (and not just the absolute stars at age 12-16) into the game and developing them?

With this sort of approach are the PL clubs much different from a street mugger? 'I like what you've got so I am just going to take it from you, regardless of how hard you worked to get it'.