STEPHEN WRIGHT believes that Scotland calls for Pars products Stuart Morrison and PJ Crossan is evidence that the Fife Elite Football Academy can be a long-term success.

And the former Pars youth supremo, who is head of coaching with FEFA, believes that the appointment of former First Minister – and East Fife player – Henry McLeish as its chairman can raise its profile further and encourage the Kingdom’s most talented youngsters to develop their game closer to home.

McLeish was unveiled as the academy’s latest signing on Monday at Auchmuty High School in Glenrothes as he declared that he wanted Fife to be home to the best environment for young players in Europe.

The regional academy was launched in June 2014 when the Pars joined forces with Cowdenbeath, Raith Rovers and East Fife to pool resources to create an ‘elite’ academy – meaning that players test themselves against the best in Scotland in the elite games programme – as part of an SFA pilot scheme that included a similar venture in Forth Valley.

The concept of a combined academy was the brainchild of the SFA’s performance director at the time, Mark Wotte, and prior to regionalisation, none of the Kingdom’s four clubs were eligible for four-star elite status, where players are offered a minimum of three coaching sessions a week.

FEFA run teams at under-12, 13, 14, 15 and 16-17 level and the initial two-year pilot has been extended by the SFA to also include this season.

Wright has been pleased with its progression so far and told Press Sport: “We’re into the third season and I feel as though we’re established now. It was tough at the start but the outcomes have been good and seven players in the summer signed contracts with three of the clubs; three with Dunfermline, two with Cowdenbeath and two with Raith Rovers.

“With Henry coming in, it will help raise our profile even further and he’s really enthusiastic, which can only be good for kids in Fife and their parents. It does take time but the clubs have been great. I work with the under-20s coaches; John Potter, Brian Nelson at Cowdenbeath and Craig Easton at Raith Rovers, and they come to our training sessions and matches.

“Our academy is almost an off-shoot of what Henry tried to propose in his report on Scottish football in 2010 but it does take time. In saying that, I think that young players and their parents have to look at the fact there are guys who have stayed with FEFA and got where they wanted to be later on. If they trust us, then hopefully we can help their development.

“When you see players like Stuart Morrison, who has been picked for Scotland’s under-19s, PJ Crossan, who was sold to Celtic, and the likes of Cammy Gill and Callum Smith playing in Dunfermline’s first team, it gives everybody a shot in the arm. For myself and the coaches, it’s great because we want to see progression in players who we’ve coached since they were 13 or 14.

“The ultimate goal is to produce the next Scott Brown as an example.”

In his 2010 report on the game, one of McLeish’s recommendations was academies serving as a “talent pathway” for youngsters and underneath FEFA is the Fife Football Performance Academy, which is funded jointly by the SFA and Fife Council to identify talented youngsters at primary and secondary stage and offer them coaching on a weekly basis.

Working closer with the Kingdom’s schools is key for Wright, who continued: “The programme that works underneath plays a big role as they have good kids from boys’ club level that feed in to them before gravitating towards ourselves, while maybe players that leave us will go back down and have somewhere to play.

“It’s important that we work closer with schools, Fife College, the council and the clubs, which bodes well for the future. For example, we do a day release programme for our 15s, 16s and 17s at Auchmuty where they have two football sessions and a classroom session, that gives them video analysis, sports science and nutrition information. The SFA asked us for an alternative to performance schools because there isn’t one for Fife so that is part of that.

“Parents might compare this to an established club badge and some might try others, which is understandable. But we’ve got something and want to keep the best players here without the need to travel to Dundee or Edinburgh to develop.”

McLeish added: “Politics and public life in Fife has been good to me and I want to put something back into the game that I love and have played. The academy has made a great start and can go from strength to strength; it has a great base and I congratulate everyone involved so far.

“We have 55,000 children and young people in our schools and that’s where you’ll find the talent. The Fife model is one that want to identify, help and nurture talent in our schools.”