PSG have launched another academy in the US with plans of expanding to ten academies in the country, taking on more than 10,000 young footballers within the next three years.

In the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area, Florida, the Paris Saint-Germain Academy USA will have its headquarters at a 20,000-seater stadium. The club last summer opened an academy in Los Angeles.

The project is led by French entrepreneur Ravy Truchot, president of Paris Saint-Germain Academy USA.

"With this state-of-the-art campus, the Paris Saint-Germain Academy USA has become a stronghold for football in the United States. From these headquarters, we will share the club’s expertise in terms of football coaching methods in order to shape a new generation of American players both on and off the pitch," he said.

According to the club, more than 18,500 children yearly attend PSG academies in 14 countries around the world, including in Brazil, the UK, Portugal and Russia.
 

AC Milan are strengthening their presence in India by opening three academies in the state of Kerala, a development underpinned by the club's ambition to spread their values around the world.   

As part of a three-year agreement, the three initial academies will be opened in the cities of Kozhikode, Malappuram and Ernakulam, with additional academies to be established in Kasargod, Kannur and Trissur in the seasons that follow.

Milan's coach, Claudio Zola, will participate in the launch in April and support the training of local coaches. 

"India is a highly strategic territory and we are proud to launch a project that, from the state of Kerala, will allow us to bring thousands of children into football with passion and competence, thus promoting all those sporting values that have always been the basis of our club's initiatives," said Milan's international academies manager, Alessandro Gianni.

According to the club, the first year's goal is to involve more than 600 children aged between five and 18 years.

Preston North End have been put up for sale for £50 million, with the price tag based on the value of the Championship club’s North West rival Burnley’s success in the Premier League.

In a recently touted pitch document, the Lancashire club is described as "a tightly run club with a very good player recruitment programme, potentially on the verge of going up to the Premier League."

"The document says if Preston does go up it could be the next Burnley," said a source who had received the document in November.

At the time, Preston were performing well in the Championship and were seen as serious contenders to be promoted to the Premier league - but the club’s performance has dipped in recent weeks, leaving it scrapping to get back into contention for promotion to the top flight.

Known for overachieving

The source said the document provided a Burnley case study to reinforce how similar the clubs are in identity and structure.

"They line up Preston and Burnley, both of them founders of the Football League, 25 miles from each other, with a similar stadium and capacity, similar sort of attendance and turnover, with Preston a little bit lower when they were in the Championship, with a similar population in the area," said the source.

Although Burnley have see-sawed between the Premier League and Championship in recent years the club are known for overachieving with a relatively small squad based on a limited budget.

...and for £50 million you can get the next Burnley

In the 2017-18 season the Clarets finished seventh in the Premier League, the club’s highest league finish since 1973-74 and qualified for the 2018-19 UEFA Europa League, its first qualification for a competitive European competition in 51 years.

The club recorded a record net profit of £36.6 million during the financial year ending June 2018 and spent only £8.6 million in last Summer’s transfer window.

"You can get the next Burnley"

According to most recent data, Preston paid staff £15 million in wages for the 2017/18 season, modest by Championship standards.

Compared to other clubs pushing for promotion they are by far the club paying the least in wages. Based on the latest public accounts both West Bromwich Albion and Swansea went above the £90 million in expenses on player wages, but those numbers are from a season when both teams were playing Premier League football.

Another Championship top side Fulham paid more than £50 million in wages to their playing squad, while both Nottingham Forest and Leeds United spend around £30 million yearly on wages – compared to the £15 million paid out by Preston North End.

"They show how Burnley have done and how Preston can do the same, with details on its player acquisition and development programme, explaining how good they are at that, and for £50 million you can get the next Burnley," said the football insider.

"The main pitch is Preston having a player recruitment model with similarities to Burnley," he added.

Amongst the strengths of the club named in the document are that Preston’s Deepdale Stadium is owned by the club and the land on which it sits is occupied under a 125-year lease to Preston City Council.

Not so desperate

Also mentioned is the fact that the club owns the freehold of the 14-acre Springfields training ground, and also has ownership of a 24-acre site with planning permission in place to construct a new training facility.

Property magnate Trevor Hemmings, who has been majority owner of Preston since 2010 through his vehicle Deepdale PNE Holdings, is in his eighties and last June his son Craig was named chairman of the club’s board.

It is not thought any advisers have been formally mandated to discuss a potential sale of the club"

A well-placed observer said of the decision to float the document: "Trevor’s not so desperate that he has to get out, It’s just a question of whether someone at some point bites. If they don’t, they’ll just keep on hanging in there until somebody does."

Sources close to the club said it made sense to acknowledge the interest of potential buyers, but added there were no serious conversation with any at the moment. It is not thought any advisers have been formally mandated to discuss a potential sale of the club.

Preston North End had a total revenue in 2018 of £13,3 million – one of the lowest turnovers in the division.

Atletico Madrid are set to take a huge step into the North American market with the creation of a Canadian Premier League club in the country's capital of Ottawa, according to the Spanish publication Palco23.

While the exact nature of the project remains unclear, an announcement is expected in the coming weeks, and the new club could conceivably make their debut in the Canadian league in 2020. 

It is also unclear whether Atletico Madrid will take advantage of an already-established local club or create an entirely new franchise. 

Atletico Madrid said they had "nothing to comment" in an email response for this article. 

Decision soon

Spanish clubs are not new to the Canadian city. Atletico partnered with Ottawa South United for a football camp back in 2016 and Barcelona are set to host several football camps in the city this year. 

According to local media reports in Ottawa, the Canadian Premier League is set to release next season's schedule by the end of January or early February, meaning Atletico Madrid would have to work fast for their new club to be ready to compete next season. 

The Canadian season runs from late April to October and currently features seven teams, each playing 28 games - 14 home and 14 away. 
 

Next season, half of Derby County's starting 11 should be academy players.

That's the target set by club owner Mel Morris in an interview with the Derby Telegraph.

"We are not going to see a team of 11 players from the academy featuring this season, but the target was for next season 50 per cent of our starting 11 should be academy players," Morris said.

"That was our target, and I think there is a possibility we could get there."

This season, nine so-called "academy products" have played first-team football at Derby, including Jason Knight, Morgan Whittaker, Louie Sibley and Lee Buchanan, all making their first-team debuts.

As part of the plan to feature more academy players on the first team, Morris added that he has requested the age of the players be reduced, wanting the average age of the under-18s to be 16.5 and the under-23s all to be younger than 19.

Oliver Kahn, the legendary former German goalkeeper, began as a member of the board at Bayern on 1st January, the first step of a two-year-long process of learning the ropes from the club's current CEO, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, before succeeding the controversial leader.

Speaking to the press on his return to the club, Kahn spoke of his qualifications and outlined the objectives of his tenure. 

"When you look at the development of this club over the last few years, it's clear we want to be number one wherever we're involved. One thing is always in the foreground: we do things to give our supporters excellent football - elite, world-class football - and aspiring to be number one in all areas is what we have on our mind. That is what FC Bayern aspires to," he said. 

If Bayern continue their current form, Kahn is set to take over a very healthy business. In the club's latest accounts, Bayern presented a record profit for the 2018/19 season at $82.9 million with a turnover of $826.4 million, among the biggest in the world.  

Youth development

Kahn also spoke of the importance of youth development for the German club.  

"Only things that continue to develop and change remain alive. First of all, I need to get an insight into the different areas in order to be able to make any really meaningful statements about what can be changed. One of the most important areas at FC Bayern is youth development. 

"We've also set goals here so we can remain at the top in the future, and we're already seeing the first signs that we're succeeding in bringing through younger players to the first team. The sporting sector is really on track in this sense."

The 50-year-old, remembered by many for his emotional outbursts, also spoke of keeping his emotions in check.  

"I think emotion is very, very important. That was an important part of me as a player on the pitch and is also called for in the stands at Bayern Munich. However, I've done a lot of other things in the past, so emotions aren't necessarily that helpful. I won't be slide tackling my way through the meeting room."

The German Bundesliga club FC Cologne have walked out on a deal to run a football academy in China, according to the local newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, an agreement reportedly worth £1.5 million.

Speaking to the newspaper, FC Cologne's chairman, Werner Wolf, said they could not go through with it "in the current sporting situation." 

The withdrawal comes after Arsenal distanced themselves from Mesut Özil last week, when he criticised China for its treatment of Uighur Muslims. The UN and human rights groups estimate that as many as two million Uighurs have been detained under harsh conditions in China's Xinjiang province. 

The issue has reignited the debate on whether Western firms should weigh human rights issues above their commercial interests when it comes to the East Asian country.  

"We cannot support such a brutal and totalitarian dictatorship"

A member of the club's council was a bit more blunt regarding the situation while speaking to the same newspaper. 

"In China human rights are being massively disregarded. A complete surveillance state is being built, one worse than even George Orwell could have imagined. I have followed developments in China for more than 20 years and I have been there several times. I know what I am talking about," Stefan Müller-Römer said. 

"Apart from the fact that it is questionable whether it is possible to make money there, there are more important things than money. And as a non-profit organisation, that is socially active, we cannot support such a brutal and totalitarian dictatorship."
 

Manchester City have announced that they are partnering up with the Corvuss American Academy in India, a boarding school for student athletes, to offer students the chance of a football education using City's coaching philosophy. 

The announcement comes after November's revelation that the club's owner, City Football Group (CFG), had acquired a 65 per cent stake in India's Mumbai City Football Club. 

"We are very pleased to be launching the Manchester City Football School at Corvuss American Academy," said the director of football education at CFG, Jorgina Busquets.

"For us, there was a natural fit as we both share a commitment to playing an active role in the development of football in India."

Grassroots coaching

The football coaching programme will be offered to students from grades six to 12 via a City-trained head coach who will lead the implementation of their grassroots coaching curriculum.

According to the club, the curriculum is a five-stage player pathway programme aimed at supporting the development of boys and girls "regardless of the level of ability, by helping them improve their skills while having fun, and becoming more confident."

"Manchester City has a phenomenal network, a great focus on developing youth talent and a strong women's team," said the chief executive of the academy, Kunal Maria.

"We are excited about providing young athletes more opportunities to hone their skills by playing the City way and developing the next generation of Indian footballers at our school."

Inter have announced that they are opening an academy in Saudi Arabia next year as part of their strategy to strengthen the club's presence in the Middle East.

The academy, set to open in January 2020, will involve a coach from Inter going to the city of Abha to work with local coaches on implementing the club's philosophies and values in the area. 

"We are thrilled to announce the opening of this new academy in Saudi Arabia. It is only further evidence of the club's ongoing growth internationally, especially in the Middle East, an area of fundamental importance to us," said corporate chief executive of the club, Alessandro Antonello.

Inter now have 20 permanent projects with more than 20,000 boys and girls and 400 local coaches involved worldwide. 

"It's an honour for us to be part of the Inter family; we're hoping for a future full of satisfaction and we hope that this partnership can last for many years," said the chairman of the new academy, Saeed Al Ahmari.

Reading FC confirm that Michael Gilkes has been appointed as the club's new academy manager.

The club legend will take over from Ged Roddy, who was sacked last week after less than two years on the job. 

"A player and a coach with the club, Gilkes has been an exemplary ambassador for Reading Football Club for many years and, having begun his coaching career within the younger age groups of this club's Academy, he is perfectly placed to now step up from his position as Football Operations Manager and head up our Academy programme," Reading FC wrote in a statement. 

The tribute to Gilkes continues: "As a player, Gilkes was a true fans' favourite who joined the club as an 18-year-old in July 1984 and went on to feature more than 450 times for the Royals in all competitions, scoring 52 goals in 13 years at Reading."

The academy, which is based at Hogwood Park training ground next to where the first team practise, is an important part of Reading's identity and was founded in 1999. 

Since then, 53 academy players have gone on to play for the first team, according to the club.

Apart from the obvious desire to create great football players, the club have it as a stated goal that the academy must also provide a fantastic education to ensure the young talents can maximise their potential, on and off the pitch.