BURNLEY hope to gain Academy status within the next 12 to 18 months.

And operational director Brendan Flood last night told shareholders the club’s youth system and facilities would take greater priority over buying back Turf Moor from Longside Properties.

“It’s certainly high on the agenda now,” said the Rossendale-born businessman speaking at the club’s 112th Annual General Meeting.

“The physical Academy building is what we would like to build.

"We’ve got the designs done, but it’s very much a budgeting exercise.

“We’ve got to be careful about the budgeting this year, as you would imagine.

"But it’s really important to us that we do it because to attract the best young player in the north of England, we have to have a building that’s competitive with everyone else’s.

“It’s more important than buying the ground back. And if we can do that within the next 12 to 18 months, that would be ideal.

“You can be confident we are dealing with that as a priority.”

Once work begins on the Academy, which would be based at the Clarets’ Gawthorpe training base, it would come under Phase Four of the £20million Turf Moor redevelopment that was proposed in July 2007 but was put on the backburner as a result of the recession.

Initial plans were predicted to cost £2m and include a world-class full-size pitch and an all-weather pitch.

Burnley’s youth set up was noted as one of the best in the 1950s and 60s with a host of top stars moving through the ranks at Turf Moor.

And in more recent times, home grown players like Jay Rodriguez have impressed after progressing through the ranks in East Lancashire.