Charlton Athletic have had their application for their academy to become category 1 status turned down.
But Addicks owner Thomas Sandgaard says that the League One club will submit again to achieve that standard.
“We were obviously disappointed our application for category one status was unsuccessful,” Sandgaard told the club’s official website.
“A lot of people put in a lot of time and effort to put ourselves in a good position with our application. I’d like to praise all the academy staff who worked tirelessly for us to submit our application. While we didn’t agree with the decision, we must respect it.
“The academy is a key part of this club and part of our ambition moving forwards is to become a category one academy. We are reviewing our options at this stage and will be looking to make another attempt at becoming a category one academy as soon as possible.”
Sandgaard recently confirmed to our paper that spending on the academy had been reduced.
Academy director Steve Avory said: “Throughout my time here there have been increases and decreases in the budget and it is something you have to manage. I have been pleased that the changes we’ve made in the academy this summer haven’t resulted in us making staffing cuts.
“As the productivity numbers show, we have an excellent academy here, with excellent staff, working hard and delivering excellent results. The adjustments in the budget don’t change that and, as have been shown by our progress this season, our focus is continuing to develop players to get to our men’s first team and represent Charlton Athletic.”
Sandgaard added: “The academy is a key asset to our club. Just this season we’ve seen players come through our academy and impact the men’s first team. Throughout the years the club has also benefitted from player sales.
“Our academy costs millions of pounds a year to run and we see a real benefit to that spend. Whilst there have been adjustments in the budget at the academy, they are a very small percentage compared to what we spend on the academy. The changes have been made in conjunction with those running the academy to minimalise any impact.”
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https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/charlton-athletics-application-to-become-academy-cat-1-status-is-unsuccessful/
