We’re back! Our Academy regains Category One status

Long-awaited outcome of reapplication and comprehensive audit received…and the Royals are back amongst youth football’s elite!

We are delighted to confirm that the Premier League have reassigned Reading Football Club’s Academy set-up as Category One, following a meticulous assessment of our entire operation at Bearwood Park.

Almost exactly a decade ago, the club’s very highly-regarded Academy was awarded the highest possible rating of Category One – ensuring our Academy was at the forefront of youth development in this country and beyond.

Last summer, our status was regrettably downgraded to Category Two – predominantly due to unfortunate issues experienced during the complex and staggered transition of our Academy operation from Hogwood Park to its new Bearwood Park facility during a period of time in which football was still held tightly in the grips of the global pandemic.

As promised, we reapplied for Category One standing last season and committed to keeping high the expectations and demands we placed upon our Academy as we continued to run our vast operation to the very highest standard throughout the course of 2022-23.

This new categorisation recognises a number of major criteria including the level of our facilities, standard of coaching, our education, safeguarding, sports science and medicine provision and the club’s ability to produce players for the first team - and courtesy of an extraordinary amount of hard work put in by our dedicated Academy staff and players…and after just one season in the Professional Development League…our Under-21s are now returning to the Premier League 2 in 2023-24.

The time, effort, energy and funding levels which have been invested in the development of young footballers within our Academy should not be underestimated. Our standards never dropped and our ambition to regain our Category One ranking refused to falter.

Now we look forward to competing against the very best Academies in the country with an Elite Player Performance Plan grade that not only gives us the ability to attract and retain the very best players nationwide but also presents us with an invaluable opportunity to build upon the achievements we have already recorded during the last ten years of our Academy setup.

With the fixtures for 2023-24 due to be released in the coming days, our Under-21s now know they will be swapping Professional Development League meetings with the likes of Charlton Athletic and Colchester United for Premier League 2 clashes against clubs of the calibre of Newcastle United and Aston Villa.

Academy Manager Michael Gilkes said, “Within our Academy are a totally devoted team who rightly take immense pride in developing young footballers, both as people and as players. And on behalf of everyone involved in Reading Football Club and its Academy, I’d like to sincerely thank and congratulate every single person who has helped the Royals to regain this prestigious status. Now, we can all truly look to the future.”

Head of Football Operations, Mark Bowen, said: “The greatest compliment I can pay to the outstanding staff who help our esteemed Academy tick every day is that the young players who have returned for pre-season training at Bearwood Park in recent weeks won’t have noticed any difference to previous seasons. We have continued to operate our Academy at the very highest standards and those levels have rightly been recognised as elite within the realms of youth player development in this country. I am delighted for our young players, I am thrilled for our talented staff and I am excited for Reading Football Club and its future.”