Chairmans Report – October
We are an iceberg within the Welsh footballing world. For the past three seasons, we have been looking at how we can ensure the sustainability of the club in a system where income is small, but the costs are huge.
On the outside, we’ve appeared to be a football club that’s simply ticking over. However, internally we’ve been working tirelessly to find ways of being sustainable, successful and meet the new targets set by the FAW.
We took the decision to invest heavily in our academy and develop players and coaches. This development has a pathway to the first team, and we have tested this pathway over the past two seasons and it’s been a success. Our Elite Development Squad (EDS) and U19’s became the test centre and starting point for the new Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP). Last season it worked with multiple players progressing into the first team and this season we are looking at ways of improving it further.
We now have a partner football club in Spain who offer full time training facilities to players and we can now offer BTEC courses, as well as online blended learning degrees, for players looking for an education outside of sport but want to continue to train in a full time environment. We are setting up a women’s team to run alongside our first team and be part of the academy, and to compliment it all, we have begun the search for partner teams in England and Scotland as outlets for all our players. We can now demonstrate a pathway for players that join us aged 7 through to the first team and beyond, something no other club in Wales is currently doing.
We will remain an iceberg in the Welsh footballing pyramid and continue to develop the club, players and coaches in a sustainable and honest fashion. We will make mistakes along the way but we will grow and learn from them. Our exciting path continues!
More than just a football club
