I am sure, by now, that everyone connected with the club is aware that the Youth System has lost its funding from the Football League because the First Team have been in the Conference for two seasons.

While we are working hard to either have the decision reconsidered or to obtain funding by other means, these things take time and we have had to press on assuming that we will have to take the system forward without this form of financial support.

Also, the League's decision means that none of our young players from Under 9 up to Under 15s are contracted to us any more and can move to clubs who have a Centre of Excellence or Academy set up without any compensation being paid as was the case with, for example, Paris Cowan-Hall and Callum Reynolds who moved to Portsmouth this time last year.

We have been extremely encouraged that only a very small proportion of our young players have sought to go elsewhere and almost all of these have gone to Academy Clubs, which is a step up from the Centre of Excellence level that we were in anyway. To date, 84 players have agreed to stay with us next season and this means that our squads will be almost as strong as prior to the Football League decision and this will allow the players to develop well so that we can continue to bring them through to the First Team.

In addition to supporting the Centre by remaining with us, the parents of our players continue to work hard to help us financially by sponsoring their sons and their squads and we now expect a healthy income by this method.

The support that we get from everyone at the club has been superb and it was no surprise when Keith Cousins told us about his initiative of asking Trust Members to pass over the discount on offer when renewing their season tickets to help to support the Youth System.

Everyone who works for or with the Youth Department in either a voluntary, part or full time capacity is totally committed to the cause and work their socks off to keep us functioning as brilliantly as we do, so we feel bitterly disappointed by the fact that just 16 out of over 150 people who had bought their season tickets at the time of writing had agreed to forego the discount.

The Youth Section is a vital part of a club like ours and, at the end of the day, we are a CLUB and clubs include Youth Teams as well as a First Team. A Youth Section brings in the next generation of supporters and, properly run as we feel it is, it brings players through to the First Team - 12 ex-youth players represented the first team last season, for example - and it is in danger of being lost UNLESS we secure alternative funding from as many sources as possible with this initiative being the ideal opportunity for fans to do their bit to help us.

We would, therefore, implore members who buy their tickets over the coming days and weeks to support us by passing their discount over to us.

In conclusion, although we continue to make good progress despite everything, we are also still desperate to get more sponsorship in from other means like local businesses to help us keep the Centre alive and would again ask anyone who feels they can help us to email me on paul.driver@rd-fc.co.uk or ring me at the club to discuss your ideas.

Enjoy your summer - roll on next season!!!

Paul Driver, Head of Youth