MALKY Mackay, the SFA performance director, and Stewart Regan, the SFA chief executive, are scheduled to meet with representatives of all 29 Club Academy Scotland members next week as Project Brave moves closer to becoming a reality.
Herald Sport understands that the final draft of the controversial strategy document, which envisages a dramatic cut in the number of young players in Scottish academies with resources being targeted at a select top tier of 'performance' academies, was approved on Tuesday by the association's professional game board.
While consultation between Mackay, Regan, consultant Alistair Gray and local academy chiefs will now take place in a series of meetings the length and breadth of the country, assuming the plan also gets the assent of the SFA's main board, a bid document could be sent out to clubs as early as next month with a view to getting the new system up and running by 2018.
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The plan, which would see all football between Under-11 and Under-16 level move to a March to November season, also envisages a dual age-band Under-18 league, and a development/reserve league in which clubs must play at least three overage players.
The main source of intrigue for the layman remains exactly how many of these academies - who are set to have their SFA funding doubled to around £200,000 per annum for the duration of a five-year licence - will be granted access to the top tier under this reform.
While there has been speculation over two divisions of eight, in order to enshrine the principle of 'best v best', in fact the exact number has yet to be set, with each of Scotland's academies instead being asked to declare an interest in taking part.
With an annual outlay estimated in the region of £250,000 to fulfil a requirement which could include five full-time members of staff, physios and sports science - currently only 40 of the 290 coaches in academies are full-time - that alone could preclude many potential applicants from bidding to take part.
The final number will be determined by which clubs/academies opt to apply and the credibility of their bids but Herald Sport understands that the idea of an eight club top tier is doomed and the final number could be 10, 12 or even greater.
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In addition to a sustainable, underwritten business model for the five-year franchise, interested academies must meet minimum infrastructure standards - on number of coaches, qualifications and facilities - which have yet to be confirmed.
They will then be scored by a set of Measurable Performance Outcomes (MPOs) which rate them on a variety of factors such as the number of players produced for their first team, the first teams of other Scottish top sides and the amount of international players (age group or full 'A' squad) each academy has produced.
The devil is in the detail with even factors such as whether the MPOs in question are worked out over one season or aggregated over three seasons potentially having major ramifications for interested academies on the cusp of inclusion.
For instance, on last year's figures, the top 10 would be Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Hibs, Hamilton, Forth Valley, Fife Elite and St Mirren, while Dundee United - now relegated, but home to one of the better performing youth academies in the country - would be in the top ten if this was averaged out over three seasons.
The remainder of academies would still receive some SFA funding as part of the Advanced Youth and Community Development Programme.
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