It was widely reported that London Broncos were set to end their academy set up ahead of 2024 despite having an Elite Academy Licence which is highly sought after by a number of clubs with Castleford Tigers and Bradford Bulls rallying to be awarded one in recent years.
The Broncos have confirmed this disappointing news and explained their reasoning behind it. They have explained that the impact of IMG have prompted it with the club wanting to use their funding elsewhere to grow their grade with the club likely to be relegated no matter what they achieve in 2024.
They have assured fans that they have a pathway for young players still through schools and will reportedly still run a reserves side.
The Broncos issued the following statement: “Following extensive consultation London Broncos can confirm a restructure to the academy and reserve teams for 2024.
“From next season the club has made the decision not to run its ‘Elite Academy’, however we will continue to run a pathway programme up to under 18 using the ‘RFL Lions Development Programme’ to continue developing rugby league players in London. Further details will be released on this once dates are finalised for. In the meantime we will continue to run a programme in local schools.
“As a club we still believe in and support the growth of rugby league in London and will continue to help develop players but in a different way.
“The academy costs the club roughly £250,000 per year to run, at a cost which has been completely self
funded.
“The reserve team will be unaffected by the restructure and we will continue to run a reserve team in the Super League reserve competition. We believe that the reserves competition is vital in the development of players as the sport is a late developing sport, so players need playing opportunities at an older age.
“Following the recent IMG grading announcement, in which we received a category B grading, we released a statement to confirm we are wholly committed to working with the RFL and IMG to improve our grading.
“We recognise that this will take time and commitment and therefore have taken the difficult decision to not run the ‘Elite Academy’ in 2024. All affected parties have been informed and we stress that this is something we will continue to review and could look to revisit in future years.
“With the new IMG grading criteria, clubs are not directly rewarded for running an ‘Elite Academy’, so we will focus on other areas to improve the club with the long term aim of becoming ‘Category A’.
“As a club we are proud of our track record of creating opportunities to play rugby league and for providing a pathway to play professional sport in the capital.”
