BURNLEY'S Academy has been upgraded to Category 2 status by the Premier League, after passing an audit under the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP).

The new grading, which will come into play ahead of the 2017/18 season, has been described as "massive" by club chiefs.

And it means the club's £10.5million investment into a new training centre is already paying dividends, with one crucial change being the entry of the development teams into a structured games’ programme as part of the Professional Development League.

Academy Manager Jonathan Pepper said: “It’s massive. If we didn’t get the nod, for us to remain as Category 3 just wasn’t a viable option and couldn’t be a viable option with the money the club has spent on the infrastructure. It’s where we need to be.

“It’s a massive organisational project for the club. To get Category 2 is vitally important.”

The Barnfield Training Centre at Gawthorpe dedicated to the provision of development and youth football and 23 full-time staff employed at Academy level.

Burnley's facilities now fall in line with Category 1 standard, with the EPPP audit also covering areas including coaching programmes, staffing levels and qualifications, strategy and leadership, education and welfare and player progression.

The progression to Category 2 grading is the result of several years of planning and implementation from coaching and administration staff across all levels of the Clarets’ youth-set up.

Burnley chief executive Dave Baldwin said: “It’s an important step forward for the club and I would like to thank all the Academy staff for all their efforts in working so hard to achieve this status.

“There’s been a massive volume of work required to do it.”

Academy football at Burnley is set to go to a new level, with the Under 23s playing in the northern section of the Professional Development League, which is dominated by Championship clubs and was won last season by overall champions Sheffield Wednesday.

The fixture list will also include games against teams from the southern section, which included Premier League sides Watford and Crystal Palace in the 2016/17 season.

“In terms of the games’ programme, that’s what we need to carry us forward to the next level,” added Pepper, whose key objective remains to get players through the system into first-team football – ideally with the Clarets either directly or via a successful expansion of the loan programme which has seen a growing number of young players gain first-team experience over the past couple of years.

“The pathway is important. If they are playing for the Under 23s against the likes of Nottingham Forest, Ipswich Town or Cardiff City on a Saturday morning or Monday evening, then the gap isn’t too big.

“But certainly, the loan system is something we’ll use again to bridge that gap and give them experience.

“Some players don’t need to go out on loan but certain players need that for their development. They need to go and experience playing in front of a crowd for something that really means something.

“But certainly, the pathways have got to improve if we are playing a better standard of football. That’s the concept and hopefully we’ll see that.”

The under-18s and under-16s will also play in new leagues in the Professional Development League system.

And the lower age groups will be able to play on Sundays against clubs from Categories 1 and 2 – including all the North-West’s major Premier League sides – which will raise the standard of opposition and, in line with the Clarets’ own top-flight status, should also aid with player recruitment.

“That will be a really good programme, so that a boy at Manchester United isn’t getting anything different from a boy at Burnley in terms of their games’ programme,” added Pepper.

"Facilities will be very similar and the level of staff support will be very similar as well.

“So hopefully, the experience of a boy coming to Burnley will be very similar to one at a similar level Premier League club."

Burnley do not want to settle for Category 2 long term though.

"We’re not going to sit still on that,” said Pepper. “We need to keep working on a number of things to move ourselves forward.

“I can see if we have a few years at Category 2, who knows what the next step will be?

“We have the Category 1 facilities in place and if our profile in terms of getting players into the first team or getting players into other clubs’ first teams and playing professional football improves, then who knows?”