Record-breakers getting underway!

Proud tutors and coaches at The Northern Premier League Football Academy (NPLFA) hailed its success as their latest crop of youngsters prepared for the start of the 2016-17 NPL Youth League.

Launched in September 2014 at five pilot clubs - Leek Town, Mickleover Sports, Newcastle Town, Radcliffe Borough and Romulus - the only league-wide academy in English football combining football with further education has more than doubled in size to 11 clubs this season.

According to statistics released by the NPLFA on the eve of the new season, the number of students involved is up from 75 to 251, an increase of 236 per cent. The number of teams playing in the NPL Youth League is also up from 5 to 14.

As a direct result of the 180 per cent rise, the NPL Youth League has been split into two divisions with two new title sponsors - Joma and Chryso - for each competition. A grand final at the end of the season will see the divisional champions meeting to lift the Jordan Burndred Trophy.

A new league cup is also being launched with all the action set to be shown online on a new Friday night MOTD style programme thanks to FilmMyMatch. A professional filming and analysis company, they will be recording and analysing all 84 league fixtures over the 2016-17 campaign as well as the grand final and a number of ties from the new cup competition.

After signing a strategic partnership last summer with Soccer Chance USA, the world’s leading provider of sports scholarships and the UK arm of Global Premier Soccer, the NPLFA is also continuing to team up with new partners, the numbers up from four to 11 to post another big increase of 175 per cent.

An NPLFA spokesperson said: "We are delighted with the recent results which indicate the level and concept of the programme is what the students who are interested in education and football want. Each year the quality provision, along with new and exciting initiatives, has lifted the programme to continuing new heights.

"We also believe that our programme being part of the EVO-STIK Northern Premier League has helped attract a lot of students who are keen to experience a successful and ground-breaking programme that is unavailable elsewhere."

The spokesman added: “Our success is showing no signs of stopping either as the programme has already started recruiting for September 2017. We have been receiving applications since last year from students hoping to be among our September 2017 intake which is a testament to our development."

Launched with the backing of the Football Association to provide career pathways into the football industry, the NPLFA's 16 to 18-year-old students study on two year courses for Level 3 Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) qualifications while being trained on a daily basis by UEFA qualified coaches and competing in the NPL Youth League and national competitions like the FA Youth Cup.

Follow the NPLFA’s progress at nplfa.co.uk, twitter.com/NPLFA, Facebook.com/NPLFootballAcademy and Instagram.com/NPLFA.

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