Monmouth Town AFC launched their Football Association of Wales (FAW) academy last week.

Director of football Barry Burns said it had taken a tremendous amount of work over the past four months to be accepted into the FAW Academy league, to arrange facilities, finance and recruit players to compete at this elite level of football within the Welsh football system.

"It really is a fantastic opportunity for young players to develop and test them selves against the best footballers from all over the principality," he said.

"We have recruited an excellent coaching team which is lead by David Murphy, Head of Youth Development at the club, a UEFA 'A' licence qualified coach who has been instrumental in the success of the launch of the Academy, assisted by Mark Caitlin as Academy Administrator.

"With the calibre of coaches we have, the Academy will continue to grow and develop high quality players for Monmouth Town AFC as the club continue to look to progess to the very highest level of Welsh football."

Proud chairman Lee Robson said: "We are the only FAW approved Academy in South East Wales, the Academy is fundamental in our plans for the long term vision of the club and will make the club sustainable to compete at the highest level of football in Wales."

A spokesman from the FAW said: "The football Association of Wales (FAW) and the Welsh Football Trust (WFT) have carried out a joint consultation period to develop the Academy System for the 2012/13 season, to Grow the Game and Raise Standards in Wales.

"It is the intention of the WFT to identify, develop and prepare players for international competition and the FAW Academy programme is identified as a key element of this.

"The games programme for 2012/ 13 will include an introduction to Futsal. This is the only small-sided version of football that is approved by FIFA and UEFA and the game in Wales is developing.

"The research into the game of Futsal proves that it is tremendous for skill development, which is transferable into the 11-a-side game."