Hearts score lottery funds for youth football academy
Friday 22 March 2002
Heart of Midlothian FC are announcing the launch of their young footballers academy today following a Lottery Fund award of £1m as part of sportscotland's commitment to help create a network of football academies throughout Scotland. The academy will be based at the Heriot-Watt University sports village.
"...youth development in Scottish football will have an important impact on the game nationally..."
The academies have been created in order develop young footballing talent throughout Scotland, with the emphasis on identifying, coaching and developing young players, particularly those who have the potential to progress into the first teams of Scotland's professional football clubs.
The Hearts campus will be the first for the Edinburgh area and will include comprehensive training and support facilities, an indoor football training area, full sized natural and synthetic grass pitches, specialist goalkeeper training facilities, strength and conditioning facilities, sports medicine areas, fitness suite gym and social areas. Football Academy awards have previously been made to Rangers FC and Kilmarnock FC, with the Rangers football development centre now up and running.
In addition to meeting the technical football training requirements of the players, the academies also cater for the wider development of the young athletes by providing services such as sports medicine, including physiotherapy, sports science and support and advice on education and career development.
Dr Elaine Murray, Deputy Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, said: "I am delighted with today's announcement of the award made to support the development of the Hearts football academy. The Scottish Executive took the lead in bringing the football bodies and others together to draw up a blueprint for academies and put in place a funding package. Today sees another step forward in delivering our commitment to establish academies around Scotland, providing first class facilities and support services to develop our young footballing talent."
Alastair Dempster, Chairman of sportscotland, said: "This co-ordinated approach to youth development in Scottish football will have an important impact on the game nationally, not only in increasing the number of talented Scottish players progressing to first team and national levels but also in the knock on effect it will have in improving the soccer skills base among young Scottish footballers."
Chris Robinson, Chief Executive of Heart of Midlothian, said: "The award of £1m by the sportscotland Lottery Fund for this project is a significant milestone. This is an important part of the funding package for our training academy and Hearts would like to fully recognise the role sportscotland have in its development.
"This facility will greatly assist in the professional development of the young football talent at Hearts. As a club we have a great track record of both producing youngsters for Hearts and international teams at all levels and sportscotland have today contributed to the future prosperity not only of Hearts but Scottish football."
Roger Mitchell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Premier League (SPL), said: "Seeing Edinburgh coming on board is excellent news for Scottish football of all levels. The SPL are fully behind sportscotland's Football Academies Programme and we are delighted to see it continue progressing and wish Hearts FC the very best of luck."
- Under the proposals put forward by the Scottish Football Taskforce, the body set up by the Scottish Executive to provide recommendations on how the football academies should be run, academies will be geographically spread across Scotland and will work with one another for the development of football nationally as well as regionally, assisted by the Scottish Football Association and the Scottish Institute of Sport.
- It is an essential requirement of sportscotland Lottery Fund's award that some of the facilities provided with the assistance of the award are available for access by the community for football training.
- Each Football Academy will employ specialist coaching and development staff including an U21 coach, an U18 coach, a physiotherapist, an education and welfare officer, part-time age group coaches, a strength and conditioning coach and a specialist goalkeeping coach.