Withdrawal from Club Academy Scotland

[callon]

After considerable deliberation, Arbroath will not be entering youth teams in Club Academy Scotland next season at the under 14 and under 16 age groups. The past few seasons has seen a marked decline in the level of funding provided while the Club have had to continually find more and more to be able to sustain the initiative. It has also become more and more difficult for the Club with its limited resources available to be able to meet the increasing levels of criteria required by the SFA to be accepted into and participate in the initiative over the season with regards to its coaching set up, facilities, medical provision, infrastructure and administration. Last season has also seen funding directed towards the emergence of a regional youth academy of excellence in the Forth Valley area with one now also about to be set up in Fife and an ongoing plan for others to be rolled out across Scotland. For several years, Arbroath have been the only Club in Angus to participate in Club Academ

[Litchies_Board]

That's a real shame. Parents and boys must have been devastated when the Club communicated this.

Youth is the way forward and I just wonder if support of local businesses could have kept it going.