Brentford Football Club’s Category Two Academy has signed a ground-breaking alliance with the Republic of Ireland’s Combined Counties Football League.
Under the agreement there will be visits by Brentford FC Academy coaches to meet with CCFL players, coaches and officials as well as allowing CCFL elite players to visit West London.
Anthony Hayes, Brentford’s Under-17 Head Coach, was in Ireland last month to sign a memorandum of understanding to ratify the alliance on behalf of Club’s Academy
The agreement will be in place for two years, the 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons.
Brentford’s Academy has a series of partnerships in place with clubs in London and the South East.
This new agreement will give the Club a presence in Ireland and might lead to some of the most talented players from across the Irish Sea heading to TW8.
The Combined Counties Football League is responsible for organising junior football in Laois, Offaly, Westmeath and Longford.
The move is part of Brentford’s drive to build one of the best Football Academies in the South East.
The Club is now operating Category Two Football Academy, under the new Elite Player Performance Plan, and in January officially opened a new indoor facility at Uxbridge High School.
Brentford’s youth development system is now rated in the upper echelons of the English game and being in Category Two enables The Bees to send teams to play games against some of the biggest clubs in the country.
Ose Aibangee, Brentford Academy Director, added: “Finding the best players possible to come in to the Club requires a lot of work.
“In the past we have set up partnerships with well-run clubs, which has been a good way for us to see the range of talent available.
“Anthony Hayes suggested we look at setting up a partnership with the Combined Counties Football League and it seemed like a great idea.
“This partnership gives us the best possible chance to find future professional footballers from that area and, more importantly, to get the name of Brentford FC known in that region.
“We will send coaches out to work with young players and scouts to watch their most talented individuals.
“There will be a chance for them to come over here and play against our Academy teams as well as watching a game at Griffin Park, experiencing English football live.
“I am sure the relationship will be great for all parties.”
Anthony, pictured above with CCFL Chairman Jim Kelly, is a native of Athlone, in County Westmeath, and said he had been thinking of putting in place an agreement for a while.
He said: “It’s something I wanted to put in place since I started working at Brentford.
“I was delighted when I met with Chris Hand, Eamon Brady and the Jim Kelly, from the league, and when I took the idea back to Ose and the other Academy staff, they were fully behind it.
“It’s very, very good.
“There’s always talent in and around this area and hopefully we’ll have first access to it through this partnership.”