Town chief executive Simon Clegg has hinted that the Blues could initially opt for Academy Category Two status as a stepping stone towards moving to Category One after promotion to the Premier League. The Blues have to decide which level of youth set-up they are going to commit to for next season before the end of this month.

Clegg says that while Town ultimately aim for Category One, they may choose Category Two in the short-term while they are in the Championship, although stresses that no final decision has yet been made: “I think it is right and proper to aspire to Category One, but at the moment if that is the long-term goal I don’t know whether we are in a position to get there before we go in the Premier League.

“We haven’t made that decision but [initially going for Category Two and then moving to Category One] is a possibility.”

He says even making sure Playford Road is at Category Two standard — which will cost clubs at least £960,000 per annum including a Premier League grant of £480,000 with Category One at £2.3 million, including a grant of £750,000, and rising by £50,000 a season - will require additional funding and further staff.

“As we are at this moment in time, we are probably an Academy Category Three or Four status, as most people would probably be,” he said.

“The world is changing, let’s be very clear. Change is being forced on us. What we have to do is to produce the right model for Ipswich Town Football Club, recognising that we can’t keep existing as we are at the moment.

“There are three areas of additional cost. One is staffing, one is facilities and one is the games programme.

“The games programme, which will be agreed exclusively by Premier League clubs, will not be decided until March 30th and we have to make a decision on Category One by March 31st.”

Clegg says the lack of detail on the proposed games programme is typical of the situation the club is having to deal with: “It is fair to say that I am incredibly frustrated the way that this process has been managed and the lack of timely information that has been provided to clubs outside the Premier League to properly prepare for these changes.

“Something as fundamental as the games programme, which potentially for Category One could be nationwide, for example. We’d potentially be playing every other Category One club around the country, whereas at the moment with the Academy structure we play on a regional basis with the odd game further afield. The cost implications of playing on a nationwide basis are huge.”

Similarly, the number of additional staff required is still up in the air — “I can’t tell you because they keep moving the goalposts” — with the matter making up much of the chief executive’s current workload: “I am probably spending about 20% of my time on Academy matters, and that’s quite a lot of time every day.

“In fact, I’ve just come down from an hour and a half briefing the Academy staff. The other day I was at Wembley talking to an Academy consultant.

“This is work in progress. There is a huge amount of work which is being undertaken at the moment to evaluate where we as a club need to get to.”

In October, Town were amongst 22 Football League clubs to vote against the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) which has led to the Academy restructuring with Clegg feeling the changes are far from in the best interests of sides outside the top flight: “It is my belief that effectively the Premier League is trying to create a category of super-academies which are exclusive to their core members, ie the 10-12 who are up in the Premier League all the time.”

Further frustrations are caused by the sheer volume of material to be waded through — four bulging lever-arch files — which at times appear to contain information which is contradictory.

He cites an example: “The whole document is peppered with mandatory posts - posts that you’ve got to fill full-time. But Rule 44 says, ‘The functions covered by the mandatory posts must be delivered by all clubs operating an Academy.

“’However, the League acknowledges that the clubs should have flexibility in the organisation of their staffing structures, providing that the structure that is adopted delivers the same outputs and results as if the mandatory posts were filled.

“’By way of example, instead of appointing a specific coach-developer, a club may instead decide to appoint extra coaches above the mandatory minimum and task more than one coach to appoint or spend a certain portion of their time carrying out the functions of the coach-developer’. So, mandatory posts aren’t mandatory. That’s the type of thing I find frustrating.”

Once the new style Academy is up and running the club will have to keep maintain an extensive audit tool which requires documents to be uploaded into 213 separate ‘entry conditions’ which will be carefully monitored: “On the audit tool we’re going to have to tell them how we’re going to operate and we have to meet all sorts of conditions.

“Then the ISO is going to come in and inspect us and ensure that we’re delivering against that plan. So, it’s not just a question of ticking the boxes and saying ‘Fine, we’re going to this’, it goes in and the money comes out, they are actually going to come in and inspect us for three or four days.

“They’re going to speak to parents, speak to players and speak to coaches. So, I’ve got to make sure that whatever we say we’re going to do we can deliver in terms of the way we operate as a club going forward.

“We are seeing a civil service-type mentality approach to bureaucracy being imposed on what is a fairly straightforward issue of developing players through better coaching.

“I’ve been saying to all the coaches at the Academy, whether you like it or not, what you do today, you will not be doing it in the same way in 12 months’ time because you’ll have a much greater level of bureaucracy imposed on you.”

Clegg, who inisists he has taken note of the Supporters’ Trust’s 5,000-signature petition, although taking issue with its ‘Save our Academy’ approach, says there is one piece of good news with it likely that Academy funding will sit outside the Financial Fair Play restrictions which are also being introduced next season: “It looks as though it is going to be outside, which is a good thing. But we haven’t got the definitive answer yet.

“There was a meeting of the Football League and the Championship clubs in particularly up in Derby last month where we got some more clarity, but the final documentation will not be delivered until June.”

Photo: Action Images

SuperReuser added 14:20 - Mar 8 Probably makes logical sense. No point spending millions on something which may not benefit us too much. Would be nice to have cat 1 status but huge price to pay. I think clegg does know what he is doing. Anyway cue the 'Clegg out's.' Everyone on this site seems to know much better than him....
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suffolkpoker added 14:25 - Mar 8 seems very pricey to me....
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Skip73 added 14:38 - Mar 8 Sounds like Premier League clubs got giving the relevant information long before everybody else giving them the advantage once again. This is just another ruling aimed at making the Premier League even more better off than everybody else.
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casanovacrow added 14:42 - Mar 8 Sadly, financial fair play rules will dictate that it isnt financially viable at any level below Premier League. All the academy rules do is allow out top league to compete with other top leagues but it kills off every other league. It's wrong.
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Stu_Magoo added 14:45 - Mar 8 I normally think that Clegg is a bit of a whopper, but this time I actually agree. 2.3mil rising by 50k a year seems a bit pricey for us to develop decent young talent - only for the Prem boys to tempt them away after 1 good season with the promise of being paid enough for WAG's, baby Bentleys and mobile-phone up the bum games with Jermaine Pennant.
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Paddy39 added 14:48 - Mar 8 It just means those rich clubs will be richer after they pick off all the talent from the acadamies. In my eyes the FA are looking after the Premiership and no one else.
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Guthrum added 14:49 - Mar 8 The more we find out about it, the more of a scam this EPPP sounds.
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Bostonblue added 14:54 - Mar 8 It's getting into the premier league in the 1st place which is gonna be the problem unfortunately!
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AlanMahon2011 added 15:18 - Mar 8 LOL CLEGG
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Moscow_Blue added 15:45 - Mar 8 Very short-sighted. By its very nature the Academy is a long term game and we should be going for Category 1 now.
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huddersfielditfc added 16:40 - Mar 8 has been mentioned on here before but.. www.notoeppp.co.uk Sign the petition and do your bit.
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ThatMuhrenCross added 16:45 - Mar 8 It would be an idiot who thinks we should be going for Category 1 now, it is the financial equivalent of buying Grant Leadbitter every season: huge expense, bad value, little benefit to the team.
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LFCITFC added 16:51 - Mar 8 There are pros and cons to both categories, the main con is the money. I think it's a no win situation for the board, Pay the £2m + for Cat 1, leaving less money for players to challenge for promotion, fans will complain. or stay at Cat 2 allowing our youngsters to be blinded by the dizzy heights of the PL clubs. fans will complain.
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Mark added 17:12 - Mar 8 > has been mentioned on here before but.. > > www.notoeppp.co.uk > > Sign the petition and do your bit. Thanks, I hadn'd heard of that so have signed it now. We should do all we can to prevent the Premier League further damaging league football and potentially the prospects of the England team in the process. Also, and I know I have mentioned this before, cancel your Sky TV contracts and spend the money on ITFC season tickets instead!

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TractorTrog added 17:25 - Mar 8 Well done Clegg throughout you have talked common sense on this issue thank God we have you to keep things calm and carry on attitiude...10/10 for handling this so far and I know we will be promoted next season and possibly some silverwear too so it wont be long before people actually see what Cleggy has done for our club...well done mate and bring on the cat1 status next season. ;0)

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Blue041273 added 17:33 - Mar 8 Clubs like Ipswich will always need to develop their younger players but probably only to sell on to the Premiership if they are better than average. Even if we ever get promoted to the Premiership and attain cat 1 status we would struggle to keep any diamonds coming through the system. While it is not one to which I subscribe, there is an argument to abolish the academy and just leech off other clubs with good youngsters coming through getting players like Cresswell for relative peanuts. The new regulations are designed to ensure that the cream of the kids get the best possible coaching and grounding in the football world. Of course la creme de la creme will end up in the Premiership, the same as now. For a fan of a team like Ipswich there is much satisfaction to be derived from seeing a young lad from an Ipswich youth team getting a chance in the first team. Long may it continue.

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Stato added 18:05 - Mar 8 Agree with Stu_Magoo. A lot of the transfer and contract dealings have looked rubbish but Clegg is right to question this.
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itfc1981 added 18:17 - Mar 8 FOR GOD SAKE if its outside of the fair play rules, We have to go to Cat 1 to get the advantage. No wonder e are in the championship still with us spending millions on transfers yet holding back on cat 1.
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jas0999 added 18:41 - Mar 8 We are a championship club. Despite the recent decent run, I think everyone accepts that 15th in the league is probably about right. Far too many poor results this season. Therefore, I have to agree with Clegg on this one. We have to live within our means at this level. Sadly, it could be many more years of Championship football. The problem we have is we will still need to be able to compete with Championship clubs, otherwise we will be unable to build a competitive squad - something PJ has still failed to do.

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Bergholtblue added 18:51 - Mar 8 One of the complaints has been that there is a lack of quality competitive football outside of the first team, surely then we need Cat 1 in order to be part of these competitive matches? One the other hand, just because you are Cat 2 or lower doesn't mean that you won't be able to find the next Darren Bent or Conor Wickham and if they are not travelling to the big clubs for matches, you have better chance of keeping them out of sight until ready to break into the first team.

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HARRY10 added 20:28 - Mar 8 We are currently losing around £19m a year. There is every likelihood that overall gates and next years season ticket sales will be down and yet folk are talking about us spending another two and a half million as if it is like replacing the corner flags. It is way, way out of our financial league as much as we would all love it, Much I'm afraid is promotion. The PL seems to be pulling up the draw bridge. Relrgated clubs now get £16m as a parachute payment for two years, then £8m for a further two years. Our income last season was £17.2m. Take off the income from the major cup games and the inhanced solidaritory payments which relegated clubs will get and we could be actually a having a gross income LESS than three clubs get in relegation money. In anyone season for the foreseeable future we could be up against 3 - 6 clubs with a £16m headstart on us. I think promotion is going to become a far off dream, that's why Clegg cannot commit, a club losing £10m a year, to spending nearly 15% of it's revenue on a youth acadamy. Thats the sad reality we have to face.

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TractorBeezer added 22:04 - Mar 8 When Cleggy shares info and insights such as this with us, he is much more likely to get support from the majority. Based on what has been written his position makes sense to me.
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AbujaBlue added 22:13 - Mar 8 Clegg is taking the right approach on this one. It is a crazy situation that clubs are being forced to adopt this system, but it just demonstrates what little regard the FA has for clubs outside the Premiership.
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budgieplucker added 22:22 - Mar 8 Fair do's to Cleggy here. We should postpone any thoughts of Category 1 status indefinitely. The game develops enough prima donnas as it is let alone starting a school to generate a new breed of younger ones thinking they have arrived long before they really have. Has Brazil developed so much raw talent by giving youngsters the very best of facilities? No - futsal played a big part - a derivative of the game adapted for many different circumstances, played in schools, clubs etc Did the likes of George Best develop his outstanding skills by being over coached no. Kicking tennis balls and tin cans around. Just a great love and desire for the game not the want to become rich and famous. Did we have to go too far afield to find players like:- Phillips Harper Butcher Peddelty Whymark, Woods Talbot, Osbourne Sivell Steggles Milton Dozzell Dyer Wright Bramble Hyam Just work hard in the local community, teach soccer in an inspiring and enthusiastic way and perhaps start thinking outside of the Premier League box. Break the mould. Develop our own way and youth scheme. Take up offers from the likes of Frans Thijssen to come and coach skills to our youngsters. Form alliances with other clubs or a say a Dutch club to share and develop together. The best teachers are often unique, good and inspiring coaches is all we need with a touch of innovation not a tome of manuals and rule books to have to work to.

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Guthrum added 00:07 - Mar 9 Well said Budgieplucker!
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