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Crystal Palace's £20m academy redevelopment gets go-ahead from Bromley Council

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Crystal Palace have been granted planning approval for their £20million academy redevelopment.

The Eagles announced the plans for the redevelopment of the site, a couple of minutes down Copers Cope Road from the first team base, in October.

Bromley Council's decision - which went through by 12 votes to one - means the Eagles can take a big step towards earning Category One academy status and rival the other London clubs for the capital's best young players.

In recent years Palace have watched on as a number of stars, raised in south London, have emerged through the development programmes of other clubs. The likes of Callum Hudson-Odoi, Tammy Abraham and Jadon Sancho all hail from south London.

"Securing Category 1 status for our Academy is imperative for us to be competitive in attracting the very best young players, and there is an abundance of raw footballing talent in south London," chairman Steve Parish said at the time.

“We have shown in recent years to have a clear pathway for our most gifted and committed players into our first-team – a tradition we are committed to continuing."

Parish said of the decision: "I am delighted that the Bromley Council planning committee has supported our very exciting plans to develop the Academy site.

"It’s a fantastic scheme and it will create an elite facility and have a transformational impact both in terms of footballing education and personal development for the 200 plus boys that are in our care at any one time.

“I would like to thank all the staff and partners that have worked so hard with us to achieve this outcome. We intend to commence work as soon as practically possible.”

The new plans include a redevelopment of the onsite buildings as well as the construction of a new covered full-size 3G synthetic pitch, for all-weather use - which drew the most opposition during the planning process.

There will also be a full size DESSO pitch - a hybrid surface used across the Premier League - along with a floodlight 3G pitch and six further pitches.

Palace hope to have the redevelopment completed for the start of next season, though the chaos caused by the coronavirus means nothing is certain.

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