club announce link-up with ards youth

Ards Football Club have announced a formal link-up with Ards Youth, the local youth club, who will turn out under the Ards FC banner from next season.

The move will bring three hundred new players to the Ards FC stable, encapsulating the nine youth sides and three girls teams which currently make up the long running Ards Youth set-up.

The venture is expected to bring nothing but positives as Ards send out a clear message that they are switching focus to the development of young, local players and that a push is being made to increase local support of the Ards FC brand.

Ards Chairman Brian Adams explains: "For years Ards FC and Ards Youth have existed independently of each other, but now hopefully joining together will benefit football in the area. This is the kind of scheme that all Irish Premier League club could find very worthwhile.

"We have introduced a new policy of signing locally based players because bringing players in from the Republic and Scotland is a drain on our budget. We're not going to have a first team full of Ards based players, but if we can bring through a few home grown players it will be helpful to the club."

Ards Youth have existed in some form or other since 1992, when they began under the Ards Rangers tag. Since then they have entered a host of under age sides in the Lisburn League, the Castlereagh League and the newly formed Ards Borough Development League. The club also cater for girls, both at junior and senior level, where a team competes in the NIWFA Greater Belfast League.

In 2001 the club gained Junior Clubmark status, a quality standard awarded by the Sports Council for Northern Ireland. They have also gained much praise locally for the standard of their set-up and Brian Adams is looking forward to the partnership.

"It was actually Ards Youth who made the approach to us and we were only too glad to talk to them about bringing the two groups together. Their representatives were very professional in their approach and I am very much looking forward to working with them."