Our U21 team

Reading a link on sky sports this morning and it talked about the new leagues being set up for the new U21 teams across the country, but Cardiff wasn't amongst it?

Are we in a different league from these other teams, I figured as palace, boro and other championship teams were there we would be too?!?

We definitely seem to be in an U21 League, the clubs above may have Category 1 status for the FFP, meaning they're in the top league of it or something, I'm not entirely sure

Fair enough, don't suppose you know what the category 1 qualifying rules are? It seems odd as palace are there, and we aren't? Our facilities must be better than theirs?!?

We definitely seem to be in an U21 League, the clubs above may have Category 1 status for the FFP, meaning they're in the top league of it or something, I'm not entirely sure

I seem to recall Cardiff applying for Category 2 status?, I'm sure it all goes by the facilities and it's unlikely we will get Category 1 until the new training facilities that VT has promised are built.

We definitely seem to be in an U21 League, the clubs above may have Category 1 status for the FFP, meaning they're in the top league of it or something, I'm not entirely sure

I seem to recall Cardiff applying for Category 2 status?, I'm sure it all goes by the facilities and it's unlikely we will get Category 1 until the new training facilities that VT has promised are built.

yeah we were given Category 2 status which is what we were aiming for, I think the club want are taking the FFP quite seriously, I'm definitely sure we're in a league because Kevin Cooper was made manager of it, I think the Premier League has the major league with a few Championship teams thrown in but our U21s will be playing competitive football this season rather than organise friendlies there and then

We definitely seem to be in an U21 League, the clubs above may have Category 1 status for the FFP, meaning they're in the top league of it or something, I'm not entirely sure

I seem to recall Cardiff applying for Category 2 status?, I'm sure it all goes by the facilities and it's unlikely we will get Category 1 until the new training facilities that VT has promised are built.

It's a shame we couldn't accommodate the U21 team at the vale, we would surely achieve category 1 status then? If we definitely are category 2 I think we've missed a trick. The opportunity for our youngsters to be playing higher class kids from better academy's would improve their game.

We definitely seem to be in an U21 League, the clubs above may have Category 1 status for the FFP, meaning they're in the top league of it or something, I'm not entirely sure

I seem to recall Cardiff applying for Category 2 status?, I'm sure it all goes by the facilities and it's unlikely we will get Category 1 until the new training facilities that VT has promised are built.

It's a shame we couldn't accommodate the U21 team at the vale, we would surely achieve category 1 status then? If we definitely are category 2 I think we've missed a trick. The opportunity for our youngsters to be playing higher class kids from better academy's would improve their game.

THIS.

I think we built new facilities for the academy though, I'm not sure but I remember Malky and Darcy opening a new building and it was all about the academy?

We definitely seem to be in an U21 League, the clubs above may have Category 1 status for the FFP, meaning they're in the top league of it or something, I'm not entirely sure

I seem to recall Cardiff applying for Category 2 status?, I'm sure it all goes by the facilities and it's unlikely we will get Category 1 until the new training facilities that VT has promised are built.

It's a shame we couldn't accommodate the U21 team at the vale, we would surely achieve category 1 status then? If we definitely are category 2 I think we've missed a trick. The opportunity for our youngsters to be playing higher class kids from better academy's would improve their game.

THIS.

I think we built new facilities for the academy though, I'm not sure but I remember Malky and Darcy opening a new building and it was all about the academy?

Thinking about it, it's in Treforest on the university playing fields. It seems strange that new facilities were built but only to category 2 standard. To me it would have made more sense to spend the amount required to make it category 1 first time, rather than spend out on a category 2 facility and then look to spend again to make a category 1 facility. But hey, I'm no billionaire, maybe my thinking is wrong!!

Exactly what changes will the new Elite Player Performance Plan bring?
The current academies and centres of excellence will be divided into four categories, as follows:

Category 1
The top level category will require clubs to have an approximate budget of £2.325m.
Have a full time staff of at least 18.
Provide at least 5 hours contact time with players each week.
The current 90 minute travel rule will not apply.

Category 2
Clubs that cannot meet the required budget requirements and staff levels demanded by Category 1, but still have an indoor training facility will most likely fall into this category.
They will spend less time coaching players each week.
Will be allowed to take players from age 4 and sign players from the age of 9.
Will require an estimated budget of £969k
The current 90 minute travel rule will not apply.

Category 3
Clubs in this category will not be permitted to coach youngsters until they are 11
Will require an estimated budget of £315k

Category 4
Clubs in this category will be used to pick up youngsters that are late developers or have been released from other Academies or Centres of Excellence. Players will be 16 years of age or above.
Will require an estimated budget of £100k

The frightening thing for me is that many Championship clubs won't be able to fund the full time staff of 18 and the 2.3 million budget necessary to reach Category 1 status and even more concerning is the fact that the category 1 clubs are exempt from the 90 minute travel rule. We stand to lose a lot of youngsters to Category 1 clubs if we don't make the move up.