Chesterfield FC academy to restructure after EFL funding withdrawn

EFL funding stops completely when a club has been out of the Football League for two years.

The Spireites are working on a plan to introduce a new model which has reportedly been successful at other clubs.

Given that the Blues have no chance of winning promotion to League Two this season as they fight against relegation from the National League, a decision has been made to restructure the academy at the end of June.

Steve Coe, Chesterfield FC’s academy and associate director, has said he will step down from his role once the community trust completes a takeover of the club.

Last November Mr Coe said the academy was set to lose £100,00 this season, with the biggest expenditure training and match facilities, along with staff costs.

A club statement read: “After numerous meetings in the past few weeks/months with the National and Football League authorities along with the takeover nearing completion with the Community Trust, the CFC board, supported by the community trust, have made the decision to no longer operate an academy under Category 3 Status due to the withdrawal of Football League funding from next season, this will finish on 30 June 2020. Although we are disappointed after all the hard work from the academy staff, we are currently helping to produce a plan for introducing a games and education programme.”

While Mr Coe said: “As this needs to operate on a no-cost basis to the club, we are currently putting the final costs together which we expect to be around £40 per month per player.

“The club have researched and completed numerous visits to other football clubs who run programmes which Chesterfield FC want to mirror and know they have been successful over a number of years.

“There is also opportunities for local businesses to help with sponsorship, these will be announced in due course.

“We would like all our players to join us next season as we start on a new journey, we will be holding trials during the summer months and working alongside the current ETC Programme.”

He added: “Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that I have worked with over the past three years as I pass over the running of the academy to the community trust on completion of the takeover.”

What is the games & education programme?

U19 Youth Team

- Enter the National League Games Programme & FA Youth Cup

- Same pathway to first-team as the academy prior

- Education programme studying toward BTEC Level 2 & 3

- Run in partnership with Loughborough College

U9-16 Junior Academy

-Compete in Junior Premier League

- Additional fixtures with Football League clubs

- Tournaments & tours

- Training sessions

- FA licenced coaches

- Players can still play for grassroots team