Brentford’s academy has reached Category One status just four years after reopening, completing a rapid rise from its 2016 closure to the top tier of youth development.
Brentford’s academy was awarded Category One status by the Premier League this week, completing a remarkable journey that began when the club shut down its youth system less than a decade ago.
In 2016, Brentford made the unusual decision to close its academy entirely. At the time, the club concluded that the model did not make financial sense. Reports suggested the academy was costing around £2 million per year, while larger clubs could sign Brentford’s most promising players for relatively small compensation fees. In effect, Brentford were developing talent that was quickly being taken elsewhere.
The response was to replace the academy with a B-team model focused on recruiting and developing slightly older players. That approach proved effective. The pathway produced over 500 first-team appearances, with players such as Mads Roerslev becoming established senior options, while Yehor Yarmoliuk has also emerged into the Premier League picture in recent seasons.
For a period, Brentford stood apart. While most clubs continued to operate traditional academies as part of the system, Brentford moved away from it entirely, building a model that was more targeted and, crucially, more sustainable.
But the landscape changed.
Promotion to the Premier League in 2021, combined with regulatory shifts and the evolving structure of youth development, altered the calculation. Top-flight clubs were required to operate academies, and the benefits of being within the system, both competitively and financially, became harder to ignore.
Brentford responded by reopening their academy in 2022, starting at Category Four, the lowest level under the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP). From there, the climb has been rapid. The club progressed to Category Two within two years and has now reached Category One, the highest tier in English football.That rise has not come in isolation either. Brentford’s Under-21s have already begun to turn that rebuilt pathway into silverware, winning the Professional Development League title this season despite a three-point deduction and, before that, taking the 2024/25 title through the play-offs under the previous format. Those achievements give the academy’s rise a more tangible shape. It is not only growing structurally, but it is already producing winning teams.
The EPPP structure defines the level at which academies operate. Category One sits at the top, with clubs competing in Premier League 2 at the Under-21 level and facing the strongest opposition in the country. Below that, Category Two clubs play in the Professional Development League, while Categories Three and Four operate at lower levels with reduced resources and competition standards.
The difference between those levels is not just competitive but structural. Category One academies are required to provide significantly more coaching contact time, greater investment in facilities and staffing, and a full development environment that includes education, sports science and player welfare. It also changes recruitment power, allowing clubs to attract higher-level prospects and retain greater value from their development.
That value is a key part of the shift. Under EPPP rules, training compensation for players developed at the Category One level is significantly higher than for players developed at lower categories. In practical terms, that means Brentford are now far better protected when developing young players than they were in the position that led them to close the academy in 2016.
In Brentford’s announcement, academy director David Rainford described the upgrade as “an important milestone” and highlighted the “commitment and alignment” across the club that has driven the rebuild. The club also confirmed that the academy will continue to operate alongside the B team, maintaining the dual pathway that has become central to Brentford’s model.
This also fits into a wider pattern across the club. Brentford’s recruitment model has already been recognised at the highest level, with a recent study by the CIES Football Observatory ranking the club among the best in the world for long-term squad building. That reflects a system that has consistently identified undervalued talent and developed it into Premier League-level players. The academy’s rise to Category One status does not replace that model; it strengthens it. Brentford is now in a position where it not only finds talent effectively but also develops it internally from a much earlier stage.
Brentford did not simply develop an academy over time. They stepped away from the system entirely, proved an alternative model could work, and have now re-entered the structure on their own terms. The recent Under-21 titles show that the rebuild has been a success.