As part of the legacy of last summer’s highly successful Huws Gray Ynys Môn 2019 Inter-Island Games tournament, the tournament organisers raised funds towards attempting to establish an FAW-accredited Academy on the island in order to provide further development opportunities for young footballers on the Island.
This was in response to the fact that Ynys Mon have not had an accredited academy/development centre for over 20 years, with youngsters travelling as far Deeside for these opportunities.
Huws Gray Ynys Môn 2019 Organiser Gareth Parry said:
“For the past two years we have worked tirelessly to try and establish an FAW-accredited Academy on Ynys Môn, acting with a number of stakeholders to realise this dream. We have held numerous open meetings across the Island providing all senior and junior clubs opportunities to become involved.
“We have not been successful yet, mainly due to the lack of financial support and meeting FAW licensing criteria with a Tier Two club, but we are not giving up and are committed to making this happen in the future. On this note I would like to place on record my thanks to Peter Davies at Llangefni Town FC for his efforts and commitment to making an Academy on the island a reality, and everyone else who attended the open meetings and engaged with us during the process, and we will continue to work with all stakeholders to attempt to achieve this for the island’s young people in the future.
“But as there is no clear timescale for these developments on the Island we cannot sit back and do nothing. Our aim was to provide youngsters on the Island the opportunity to “further” develop and that is what we still aim to do.
“Among other things, Bangor 1876 have recently established a Development Centre providing youngsters with these additional opportunities to further themselves. We have been in discussions over the past few months to see if there was a way for us to work together to provide these opportunities for Ynys-Mon-based players, and I’m thankful that those will be available.
“Therefore, our intention is to work with Bangor 1876 to support and provide Ynys Mon based players with the opportunities to develop and excel. We will do this by looking to support any Ynys-Mon-based players who would not otherwise be able to access such provision.
“I would like to re-iterate, that our primary focus is providing further development opportunities to Ynys-Mon-based players, and assure you that any funding used will be for the sole purpose of supporting Ynys-Mon-based players.
“As we are not able to offer this provision on the Island, I am grateful to Bangor 1876 who are willing to work with us to provide this. An additional and important element of these discussions are centered around the fact that youngsters accessing the Development Centre will still be able to play for local clubs in the Anglesey Junior League, therefore not diluting the quality within the clubs and allowing youngsters to continue playing locally with their friends.
“We will continue our work with local clubs on the island to develop a fully-fledged FAW-accredited academy, or Development Centre, and would encourage those interested to contact us, but until a club is able to take this forward and has the financial support and human resource to do so, we will continue to do our utmost to ensure the best opportunities are available to our young people.”
Llangefni Town FC’s Peter Davies said:
“I am pleased that Bangor 1876 have been able to put together an offering that will surely be of significant benefit to the aspiring footballers of Ynys Môn. Having the Ynys Môn Men’s Manager heavily involved in Bangor’s plans too is very encouraging and shows that the needs of our island will remain central to their plans.
“It is disappointing that, despite our very best efforts over an extended period of time, we haven’t been able to complete our plans to develop an academy for the island at Llangefni Town FC due to a lack of finance, but we will continue to explore every possibility to complete our plans in the future and wish 1876 every success in their endeavours to provide excellent opportunities for our island’s youth.”