Coventry City have again thanks to the hard work of Richard Stevens and everyone involved, had their Academy Category 2 status renewed by the football authorities.
Stevens told Alex Lowe: “It’s been two years of hard work for everyone at the Academy, with the backing of the wider football club because it takes a concerted effort from everybody to get to the stage where you get your licence granted.
“We were audited 18 months ago. We got an action plan and there were three or four points that we had to address. Back in May I went to the Premier League offices, and we got the letter a couple of weeks ago. It’s great news for everyone at the Football Club.
“It’s a games programme, it’s the accolade of playing with 24 other Category 2 football teams.
“It’s the place a club of our size needs to be. It means we can attract footballers from the local area, we can have the right staffing levels and the facilities that we need. And as proven, you can push boys out at the other end and give them the opportunity to become footballers.”
The status is awarded after a six month audit is under-taken and Stevens said: “There’s a six month lead up to the actual audit.
“For six months, you have to upload onto an online platform everything that you do – every document, every piece of paper, technical programmes, reports, staffing models. It takes over your life for three or four months of that lead up.
“Then two auditors come in for five days and they look at everything that you do, and everything that they say you do – they look to find the evidence. They spend an hour with each member of staff.
“They watch games, they speak to players, they speak to the Chief Executive and the Manager – just to make sure that everything that is in our Academy Performance Plan is adhered to. Then after that you get your reports, you have to work on your action points and get to the stage you are now.”
More on this - https://www.ccfc.co.uk/news/2018/august/news-coventry-city-academy-awarded-category-2-status/