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St John’s High School chosen to be one of seven SFA football academies

Building exterior of St John's RC High School, Dundee.   Building exterior of St John's High School.
Building exterior of St John's RC High School, Dundee. Building exterior of St John's High School.

A new SFA-run football academy is to be created at a Dundee high school.

The move is major boost to hopes that Dundee will become home to a National Football Academy and play a key role in developing the next generation of Scottish footballers.

The Scottish Football Association intends to create seven ”performance schools” in towns and cities across Scotland that will give pupils access to top level coaching for 90 minutes each day before and after lessons.

The Courier understands the SFA has chosen St John’s High School as one of the sites for the new academies.

City leaders are already campaigning to bring a National Football Academy and National Indoor Football Centre to Dundee. Former Scotland internationals Dave Narey and Kevin McNaughton both attended St John’s High School.

The SNP pledged to create a National Football Academy before the last election.

Dundee-based Labour MSP Jenny Marra has spearheaded the campaign which has won the support of the SNP-led city council as well as the city’s two professional football clubs.

The campaign has also received the backing of Liverpool and Scotland midfielder Charlie Adam, who attended Braeview Academy in Dundee.

Ms Marra said: ”I think this is great news. There is a lot of good work in sport and football that is already going on at St John’s.

”I visited the school a couple of weeks ago and was very impressed. It will also help our campaign to bring the National Football Academy to Dundee.

”It would be an elite performance centre for people from across the country. Having another performance academy adds to the strength of the bid the city council has agreed to put forward.”

Dundee City Council education convener councillor Liz Fordyce said: ”I am very excited to hear about this potential development for St John’s High and I am sure that the school would look forward to join this elite Scottish network.

”A strong partnership has already been forged over the last two years as St John’s has worked closely with the Dundee United junior academy.

”This would be a tremendous boost for sport in Dundee and comes as the city council and our partners take forward Dundee’s case as the location for the national football academy.”

The SFA is set to formally announce the seven chosen schools for their new academies before Christmas.

The St John’s High School academy will be run by Ian Cathro, who created Dundee United’s soccer academy scheme, which is already in place at the school and will become part of the new SFA setup.

Cathro, who has studied the youth set-ups at several continental clubs, is also said to be close to Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas and was chosen to head United’s youth setup by current Scotland national coach Craig Levein.

S1 to S4 pupils selected for a place at the academy will be given 90 minutes’ coaching before and after lessons each day.

They will also be given advice on nutrition and exercise from sports scientists. The first 11 and 12-year-olds to be given places at the academies will be chosen early next year.

The other academies will be created at Hazlehead Academy in Aberdeen, Broughton High School in Edinburgh, Graham High School in Falkirk, Holyrood High School in Edinburgh, Grange Academy in Kilmarnock and Braidhurst High School in Motherwell.