FC LONDON ACADEMY is now LONDON TFC ACADEMY

Local championship soccer club FC LONDON has confirmed that as of December 1, their youth academy program will be heavily affiliated with MLS professional soccer club “Toronto FC” and will in turn rebrand to “London TFC Academy”.

The rebrand will include new colours which will change to Toronto FC’s red, grey and white colour scheme along with a clothing manufacture change to soccer giant Adidas.

“This is exciting for London as we are truly now offering a pathway for male players to pro.” States club founder Ian Campbell. “We’ve spent several months negotiating deal with Toronto FC president Bill Manning and GM Tim Bezbatchenko and we’re thrilled with the results.”

Those results include ongoing trials for players at TFC’s state of the art KIA Training Centre which is only a two hour drive from London. Many players within the club have already played exhibition games, toured the pro team’s facilities and attended evaluations with Toronto FC coaching staff. The TFC staff will be tracking all London TFC Academy players in a master database for ongoing assessment and evaluation. Toronto FC will also be sharing player recruiting, coaching, training and curriculum resources with London TFC Academy as well as running camps, training and evaluation sessions in London.

All materials shared by Toronto FC will be shared with partner clubs of FC LONDON.

“This is the real deal.” States Club head coach Mike Marcoccia. “The combination of this affiliation with our established U21 and League 1 program now gives us a legitimate pathway from U8 right through to professional opportunities.” “On the girls side of things, they’ll also get exposure to curriculum and coaching from TFC staff which will enhance their ability to work toward scholarship and professional opportunities.”

FC LONDON will continue to be the brand for the League1 and U21 teams as players graduate from youth soccer to the next playing level.