Elite Player Performance Plan

The Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) is a youth development scheme initiated by the Premier League. The intention of the EPPP is to improve the quality and quantity of home grown players produced by top English clubs. Measures introduced by the EPPP to free up movement of younger players by establishing a hierarchy of association football academies in England and fixing the transfer fees between academies have proved controversial and some smaller clubs closed their academies in response to the changes.

The EPPP was accepted by the 72 member clubs of The Football League on 20 October 2011. The clubs voted 46 in favour and 22 against, with three no-shows and one abstention.

The Premier League published the following list of principles upon which the EPPP was designed after its ratification by the members of the Football League:

The plan aims to improve youth development by focusing on the following:

The plan proposes the modernisation of talent identification and recruitment including research in such areas as physiological parameters, relative age effects, psychological profiling, motivation, decision making, technical ability and attrition rates.

The principal changes from the former academy system are:

Abolition of the "90-minute" rule – Academies were only allowed to sign players aged under 18 if they reside within 90 minutes travel of the training facility. This has historically provided each club with a "catchment area". There were some exceptions to the rule to provide for players living in remote areas. Larger clubs were prevented from taking youth players away from home at a young age for training.

A four-tier academy system – It is proposed that there will be four gradings of academies, with the highest rated academies being able to sign the best players and command the largest fees. Category 1 academies will have high contact time with young players, require a minimum of 18 full-time staff and an operational budget of £2.5m. Academies will be reviewed every two years and re-categorised if necessary. Categorisation is the result of an independent audit.

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