United youths are top of the class

Jan 30 2008 Ayrshire Post

AYR UNITED have handed over a cheque for £30,000 to the Ayr United Football Academy.

This was made possible due to the club receiving the top award from the SFA after their audit of the youth set-up back in November.

Through the terms of an agreement between the club and the Academy, the money was passed down and will go directly to helping fund the Ayr United pro youth teams playing at the Initiative level.

Managing director Lachlan Cameron, who is also an Academy director, handed over the cheque during Saturday’s game against Queen’s Park to two other Academy directors, John Dalton and Donald Stewart.

He welcomed the progress of the Academy so far. “This is the second year in a row that the club has received the full amount from the SFA and that is down to the hard work of all those at the Academy and the club.

“This will help provide a decent percentage of the money that is needed to run teams at this level.

“The best part for the supporters and interested parties is that because of the way that we have set up the Academy, all of this money goes directly to fund youth and can’t be used for anything else.

“This gives our youth the bonus of knowing that funding from the club won’t be pulled out from under them and it provides a much more stable base than any previous set-up.”

Welcoming the award, Academy Chairman Ian Welsh paid tribute to all those who have put in a lot of hard work to ensure the success of the Academy.

"To receive this accolade from the SFA is an indication as to how quickly the Academy has begun to deliver its objectives in such a short time.

“It is only two years since the Academy was formally established and this award is a reward for all the hard work put into our youth development programme by a lot of people associated with the Academy.

"The Academy is run by volunteers at all levels who give up their own time to continue the development of both the Academy and the young players who we hope will prove to be the next generation of Ayr United players.

“Our coaching staff in particular give up most of their spare time to work for the Academy and this award is recognition of theirs and others dedication to both the Academy and the players."