THERE were the widely-anticipated winners and losers when the identities of the eight ‘elite’ academies selected to comprise the top tier of the SFA’s Project Brave scheme were revealed yesterday.
Malky Mackay, the SFA performance director, said that naming the top eight – one of the worst kept secrets in the Scottish game – and an eight-team ‘progressive’ bracket beneath them, which are subject to potential appeals from Ross County and Morton, was a “significant milestone” for the association’s latest scheme to revolutionise youth development in this country.
While both County and Morton set out for the elite bracket, the Highland side found themselves in the second tier while the Championship outfit last night hit out at a process whereby their youth academy, just five years old, was unable to generate enough Measurable Performance Outcomes (MPOs) such as first-team appearances and Scotland caps for the third tier, alongside Fife, Dundee and Queen’s Park in the ‘performance’ category.
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The club’s chief executive Warren Hawke and academy director Derek Anderson will meet Stewart Regan, the SFA chief executive, to discuss the matter further on Friday. From March 2018, the eight ‘elite’ academies will play four times against each other, and once against the ‘progressive’ academies, with ‘performance’ academies playing three times against ‘progressive’ academies, although Mackay insisted that these bandings are not fixed and would be reassessed in June 2018.
Morton issued a statement yesterday hitting out at the SFA for the way the matter had been handled by the Club Academy Scotland panel. They feel the principle of best v best isn’t being adhered to. “On entry to our panel meeting on Friday 10 November, attended by both head of youth Derek Anderson and myself, we were met with the opening remark: ‘Due to your MPO rating, you are in 17th place.
Therefore you can’t access either of the top two tiers of the programme. Therefore this meeting will determine your entry to performance level. I have to admit that both Derek and I were flabbergasted and highly frustrated by this statement as we hadn’t been informed of the MPO league table prior to the meeting and had been working tirelessly towards assessment at second-tier level. The Scottish FA system, therefore, has punished our academy for the fact it is only five years old and doesn’t have historical MPOs beyond its inception.
“From Day One this has been a collaborative activity,” insisted Mackay. “The clubs have been engaged at every step, with daily dialogue to help with their applications. What I would like to stress is that the bandings are not fixed and they will be reassessed in June 2018. No door is closed to clubs outside of the Elite bracket with aspirations to move up.”
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