To close the EFL’s first ever Youth
Development Week, the League has announced a three-year extension to the
successful EFL Futures initiative.
The £1million per-season programme,
which will now run until the end of the 2021/22 campaign, provides EFL Clubs
with a financial incentive to give home grown players more first team
opportunities. Confirmation of the extension follows a week of high profile
coverage of the work of the EFL and its Clubs are undertaking in developing
some of the best young players in the country.
Since launching in December 2016,
Clubs are rewarded for providing starting opportunities in EFL fixtures for
players under the age of 21 and who are eligible to play for England (or Wales
for Swansea City and Newport County).
Other initiatives that have been
developed recently include the introduction of the Club Developed Player Rule
at the start of the 2018/19 season, which ensures each Club is required to
nominate at least one Club Developed Player on their teamsheet of players for
all League competition matches, alongside an increase in the number of home
grown players that must also be named from six to seven.
EFL Chief Executive, Shaun Harvey,
said: “I am delighted we have been able to confirm a
significant extension to a campaign which provides EFL Clubs with a tangible,
financial reward for providing young players with first team opportunities.
“The announcement comes at
the end of a week of raising awareness of a key strategic aim of the EFL, to
create more and better home grown players. Clubs
invest over £90million a year into Youth Development programmes and are
supported centrally by regulatory interventions.”
With one in four registered players in
the EFL being eligible for EFL Futures, the Sky Bet Championship has seen the
biggest increase in starting appearances for young English players, rising by
15% since 2017.
There have been almost 1,500 starting
opportunities so far this season for 169 young English players across all three EFL divisions.
Funding is provided through the 1%
Youth Development Levy, with the campaign central to the EFL’s ambition to
create opportunities for young players and representing a collective commitment
between Clubs and our partners to improve opportunities for home grown players.
For more information on EFL Futures or
the EFL’s commitment to Youth Development, please visit:
https://www.efl.com/-more/efl-youth-development/