Town’s Charitable Trust has hit out at the FA for withdrawing the licence for its Girls’ Centre of Excellence, along with 17 similar schemes at other clubs. The twice-a-week sessions have been running for a 10 years with around 500 girls having taken part, some progressing into the Town women’s side and England youth set-up.
The Trust’s operations director Matthew Try said: "Unfortunately, we have been one of several high-profile centres of excellence not to be handed a new licence despite the best efforts of the staff involved, who had put forward an excellent case for us to be included.
"Other high-profile casualties include Fulham, Charlton, Watford and Reading, all of whom have an excellent and long-standing track record, alongside our own at Ipswich, in the delivery of high-end girls’ football.”
An FA spokesman said the change came about after a process of consultation: "This restructure has resulted in some existing FA Centres of Excellence no longer receiving an FA licence as their application was not as strong as others in their locality.
"The FA is personally communicating with all these centres individually as to these reasons. We sympathise with all the players and staff who will be affected by this restructure and will help identify opportunities which enable them to continue accessing appropriate levels of coaching and support.”
The Trust say they will continue to try to offer coaching despite the loss of the FA licence.