Wanderers Academy Awarded Category Two Status

Bolton Wanderers are proud to confirm that the club's Academy has been awarded Category Two status under the Premier League's Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP).

The upgrade follows an independent audit of the club's youth set-up by the Professional Game Academy Audit Company (PGAAC), the body that assures standards and categorises every academy in the professional game. Assessors judged Wanderers against the requirements set across facilities, staffing, coaching, recruitment, education and player welfare.

The award marks a return to Category Two for an Academy that operated at the elite Category One level from the launch of the EPPP in 2012 until 2015. The set-up moved to Category Two before dropping to Category Three in 2020.

Since Football Ventures acquired Bolton Wanderers in 2019, the ownership has rebuilt the club across every area, on and off the pitch and has kept the Academy at the heart of that journey. Regaining Category Two status reflects several years of investment and steady improvement in facilities, staffing, coaching, recruitment, education and support, behind a pathway that carries young players from the age of nine through to the first team across the Foundation, Youth Development and Professional Development phases.

Wanderers' Academy sides at Under-21 and Under-18 level will now compete in the Professional Development League under the auspices of the Premier League. The move gives the club's young players a broader and more demanding games programme, designed to aid their development and close the gap between Academy and senior football.

The news follows Wanderers' promotion to the Championship last season, a return to the second tier of English football after seven years away, and reflects the progress being made across the club's football department.

Wanderers' Sporting Director, Fergal Harkin, said: "This is a proud day for the club and reward for a lot of hard work behind the scenes. The credit for it belongs to Dave Gardiner and every member of his team at the Academy. Their commitment and dedication, day in and day out, have set the standards that this award recognises.

"Building a strong and sustainable pathway from the Academy to the first team has been central to our thinking and it is an ambition shared right across the club. Category Two is an important marker of the progress we are making. It gives our young players a tougher, more consistent games programme and the environment they need to keep developing.

"We are already seeing what that pathway can produce. Toby Ritchie has travelled with the first team to Slovakia this week and continues to grasp every opportunity in front of him. He is a local lad who has come through our age groups and I hope he is one of many. Developing our own players matters deeply to this football club and Category Two is another step towards doing exactly that."

Head of Academy Dave Gardiner said: "I am delighted for everyone connected with the Academy. This has been a real team effort across coaching, recruitment, education, performance support, player care, safeguarding and our support staff, and it reflects the work that has gone in over several years to reach this point.

"The club has come a long way and the backing the Academy has been given has been central to that. Category Two takes us closer to where Bolton Wanderers believes its Academy should be. We have a talented group of young players and excellent people working with them and the job now is to keep building, keep raising standards, and keep producing players who can go on to represent this fantastic football club."