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NUFC Directors Refuse To Confirm Whether Academy Has Top Status

10 years ago
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Last night the club directors refused to answer the question of whether the Newcastle United Academy has Category One status.

This long running saga has seen the club over the past year and a half failing to reveal what the position is.

Having Category One status gives clubs a massive advantage over those who don’t and as well as financial incentives if you have top status, you can also look for talent further afield.

When the changes were forced through it was very much seen by Football League clubs as the rich and powerful clubs giving themselves massive advantages to grab all the young talent.

Of course this only works if you actually have the Category One status!

Under these rules for example, a Category One Academy can go to any other training ground to watch a player if they give 48 hours notice and buy the player for a fixed fee, starting from £3,000.

Middlesbrough and Sunderland announced that they had achieved top status back in July 2012 and it was then that it was first reported Newcastle United had failed. Ever since then the club have continually refused to comment on the matter.

When the question was put at last night’s Fans Forum meeting at St.James’ Park, the Newcastle United Directors John Irving and Lee Charnley refused to answer the question and fans were told a further update would be made in due course.

This is an embarrassing situation and sums up the contempt the club have for the fans in general and those in particular giving up their time to attend the Fans Forum, it is a question that is a simple yes or no and quite clearly it isn’t a yes.

Sadly, Newcastle United are still lagging way behin Sunderland and even Middlesbrough, with that being the case how on earth can we hope to challenge the clubs at the top.

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