Yeovil Town FC cuts tie with community trust

A long-standing partnership aimed at supporting young people through football has ended over a disagreement on how education programmes should be delivered.

Yeovil Town Community Sports Trust (YTCST) released a statement on Thursday saying it had been informed by the club that their formal relationship was ending.

The trust accused the club of undermining its work with young people by negotiating a new education programme with Yeovil College.

Yeovil Town FC responded by saying its community work would be best delivered directly by the club and their new partnership with Yeovil College would bring "real strength and ambition" to the education on offer for young people.

YTCST, which has been the club's charitable arm since 2008, partners with schools to offer physical education, coaching and other football activities, and runs a football education programme.

The trust said it had been told by the club to remove its badge and branding from all communications and that it could no longer be a partner organisation.

It has said the new education programme with Yeovil College was agreed without informing the trust and "directly competes with the programme the trust has been successfully running for the last two years".

"What saddens the trust the most is that this has been done without due consideration to the students in the middle of their studies," it added.

"It's incomprehensible that the current owners are choosing a path of division between the club and the trust, particularly as 'community' has been promoted as one of the club's core values."

The trust said it would continue its work in the community with "renewed purpose and vigour".

In a statement, the club said they concluded "the club's community work and effort are now best delivered directly by the club" as a shared way forward could not be agreed with the trust.

They said the formal relationship would end, but thanked the trust for its work over the years.

"That decision is backed by our rebuilt and now robust partnership with Yeovil College, which brings real strength and ambition to the education on offer, and to the futures we want for our young people, in their studies and in the game."

It said the interests of the young people on their education programmes had been at the heart of the decision.

"Every community initiative that matters to this town will continue, now delivered directly by the club and given even greater focus and investment than before," the statement said.

Yeovil College announced its new Performance and Development Pathway for aspiring footballers to develop on the pitch and in the classroom.

Students will study a Level 3 BTEC in Sport Coaching & Development alongside an intensive football training and fixtures programme at Huish Park.

The college said this is the only pathway available for current year 11s to play for Yeovil Town's under-19s team, but it was also designed to open up routes into university-level education, apprenticeships, and careers within the sports industry.

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