Burnley’s Academy has lost its Category One status ahead of the new season, according to Training Ground Guru.

The Clarets’ youth system has been demoted to Category Two following a meeting of the Professional Game Board (PGB) last week.

The club had failed its audit earlier this year following a three-step process.

That process involved an on-site meeting at Burnley with the Professional Game Academy Audit Company (PGAAC) to discuss the reasons for failure, a meeting to discuss with the auditors the steps to revise and ratify those reasons and a meeting with the FA’s PGB to rule on the final decisions.

The PGB and PGAAC both agreed with the decision to withdraw Burnley’s licence for a Category One academy.

That licence was initially granted on a two-year basis in July 2020 on a provisional basis.

Despite a ‘letter of mitigation’ from Burnley claiming the reasons for failure was down to Covid-19, the club was still demoted to Category Two.

This will come into place for the start of next season, as the club prepares for life in the Championship following relegation.

The club had managed to rise from Category Three to Category One from 2017 to 2020, with the importance of promoting youth players being emphasised by the new owners ALK Capital, who took over in December 2020.

The Verdict

This is not a good look for ALK Capital, who already have earned a poor reputation among fans for leveraging the club with debt and leading their relegation to the second division.

These issues that have been raised must now be looked into and fixed if the club wants to maintain its vision for the youth set-up.

This is also not an ideal way to prepare for the Championship, with the reputation of the club taking a dent at a poor time.

However, the people involved with the youth academy have shown they can make these improvements in the past so should be able to earn Category One status again in the near future.