It has been confirmed that the Football League has agreed the Premiership's offer of a new deal about acadamys which includes the easier transfer of talented youngsters to Premiership clubs.
This is how the Guardian have reported the agreement:
Representatives of the 72 Football League clubs have voted to back a controversial overhaul of the player academy system that will make it easier for Premier League clubs to recruit young talent from smaller teams.
The vote was passed by 46 to 22, with three no-shows and one abstention. Had clubs rejected the plan, the Premier League would have withheld their funding for youth development – which is currently more than £5m per season.
The elite player performance plan will now replace the current tribunal system, which assesses player valuations based on evidence from each club. The new system will mean a selling club is paid £3,000 per year for every year of a player's development between the ages of nine and 11. The fee per year from 12 to 16 will range between £12,500 and £40,000.
Top clubs will also be exempted from the current rules preventing them from signing under-16s who live more than 90 minutes' travelling distance away (or an hour for under-12s), allowing them to scout and sign players from anywhere in the country.
Speaking before the vote, the Peterborough director Barry Fry warned the system could mean the closure of Football League youth academies.
Fry told the BBC: "What frightens me is that a lot of clubs will pull out of having a youth system altogether. Lower league clubs will look at how much it costs to run their academy or school of excellence and think that, if the Premier League can nick their best players for a low price, what is the point of investing in it?
"The Premier League wants everything and they want it for nothing. Football League clubs will moan about this at the meeting but vote for it because they have no choice."
Meanwhile Paul Fletcher writing on a BBC Sport Blog has commented that some lower league clubs might give up their youth development:
Of the 72 Football League clubs, only Hereford and Morecambe do not currently have a youth development system. The changes are unlikely to lead to an immediate reduction in the number of academies because the new system actually increases the level of funding for clubs.
But the chairman of a League Two club told me that, further down the line, when the fixed period of extra funding has ended and lower league clubs are losing their best young players for next to nothing, many will decide to scrap their youth systems.
An academy director agrees. He added: "Youth systems at Championship clubs will survive because they will be able to cherry-pick from smaller clubs. But, for the likes of Barnet and Stevenage, I imagine it will be the end for them."
The Premier League itself is adamant that it is a fair system and the reforms are necessary. But they could cause a long-term problem that will transform the landscape of youth development in the Football League.
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