Town recently awarded category four status
Fleetwood Town’s youth team have recently been awarded Category 4 status by the audit process conducted by Double Pass in conjunction with the Premier and Football League.It has been an 18 month process for all Club employees, who have played a part in producing processes and procedures to highlight the good work and practises carried out on a daily basis within the academy.
Steve Carlin, Academy Manager, spoke to the Club’s media team about the achievement and stated his delight for all involved.
He said: “I’m elated because it’s been a long arduous process. All the guys have put lots of hard work in trying to make sure the categorisation is achieved, and we’ve reaped the rewards.
“It was a long three day process. The first day was at Fylde and was made up of watching the lads train and conduct interviews with the staff.
“It was the same process the day after, they came to the college this time to watch training there, and then up to Fleetwood to again interview members of staff.
“Then on the Saturday they came to watch the game to ensure that the team played in the philosophy that we said they did.
The categorisation process comes in four different stages, and as a new football league side, Carlin feet it necessary to continue the Club’s rise by starting with the basis and producing fantastic academy foundations before potentially progressing.
He continued: “It’s the first stepping stone for us now going forward. When we first joined the league the EPPP was around and there was talk about how it was going to go forward.
“We knew then the processes we had to go through but we didn’t fully understand the requirements of what it was.
“Now that we’ve gone through the process, the audit and all the documentations are all in place, it’s that stepping stone.
“If we want to try and develop, which we will potentially do for category 3 status, we’ve got that first foundation stone.
The Club’s academy are developing under the guidance of how the first team are progressing, and Carlin added.
“It’s just another accolade for the progression of this aspiring football league Club.
“We are going to continue doing all the proactive good practises that the academy carry out, and will get re-audited in a three year period.”
With the aspirations of Fleetwood Town Football Club, will this re-audit process keep them within the same categorisation, or will they raise the bar as they have done in all other areas….?