It was in July 1998 that Bristol City's Academy was launched, with the aim of attracting top young talent to the club and providing top-class facilities to develop stars of the future.

To gain the necessary Football Association licence, the club had to fulfil a stringent set of requirements, including a total commitment to provide finance, the right facilities and a separate organisation from that of the first team to run the Academy.

A fully qualified staff had to be appointed to control all aspects of the new set-up, including the educational side.

A community programme had to be arranged to run in conjunction with the elite programme.

The governing bodies of the game decided all Premiership clubs should run an Academy, along with any Football League clubs who wanted to take part in the scheme and could meet the necessary requirements.

City were allocated one of only 34 licences granted at the time, having decided to join the vanguard of the exciting new development.

The Academy was immediately subject to regular monitoring by the Football League to ensure the club continued to meet the necessary stipulations.

Since then the foresight shown by the Board of that time has been handsomely rewarded. While financial investment in the Academy has been considerable, it has provided numerous members of the current first team squad.

Players like Kevin Amankwaah, Danny Coles, Matthew Hill - to name but a few - have all come through the Academy system and benefited from the guidance they have received.

City's youth sides regularly do battle with the top clubs in the country through their involvement in the FA Premier Academy League, while the players also receive first-class education to prepare them for a career outside of the game.

In years gone by the club has tried to buy success in the transfer market, sometimes being guilty of paying lip service to its youth development programme while concentrating on first team matters.

Former chairman John Laycock was a major advocate of investing in an Academy, insisting that only by attracting and nurturing the best young talent could City hope to return to the top level of English football.

Supporters have become increasingly persuaded towards that point of view and have dug into their own pockets to ensure that City retain their Academy status, even as a League One club.