New pitch boosts club (From Bournemouth Echo)

New pitch boosts club

1:00pm Monday 30th April 2001

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CHARLTON Athletic will preserve its academy status for producing future football stars after winning approval for a new space-age training pitch.

The club has planning permission for the pitch at Sparrows Farm Sports Centre, in New Eltham to be covered by a nine-metre high fabric air dome.

The Football Association said the club had to improve facilities by August, which made the decision crucial.

If turned down, Charlton would have been the only Premiership club not to boast academy status.

It means outstanding footballing talent can still be developed by Charlton at the highest level, alongside youngsters from other leading clubs.

The club's chief executive Peter Varney said: “The retention of our youth academy is vital to the future of the club.

“Without it, players of the calibre of Richard Rufus, Scott Parker, Paul Konchesky, Shaun Newton, and Steve Brown would not progress to the first team.”

Players aged eight to 21 are recruited onto technical and educational programmes to produce footballing excellence. There are currently 120 young players involved in the Charlton academy.

The go-ahead from Greenwich Council means other children will benefit from the new pitch. Charlton have offered its use, and that of coaching staff, to schools.

The offer is also open to Greenwich University which owns the site.

It is next door to the club's training ground which houses the academy at the moment.

The indoor synthetic pitch, measuring 55 metres by 37 metres, will be built on an existing, but derelict, pitch.

From October to March it will be encased in the white fabric dome allowing constant air pressure and reducing noise.

For the remainder of the year the dome will be dismantled and stored.

Members of the Eltham Society had raised some concerns about extra traffic being generated in Sparrows Lane and suggested a green dome to reduce impact.

The club said there would be little extra disruption, with the pitch used solely for training rather than competitive matches.

As one of the planning conditions Charlton agreed to fund traffic management and environmental improvements locally, to be decided by a working party.

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