Carlisle United's Centre of Excellence is a facility for giving youngsters specialist professional tuition in football.

Entrance to the Centre is by invitation only for boys aged U9 to under U16.

This section of the site explains the aims of the Centre of Excellence and a little of what goes on there.

Head of the Centre of Excellence David Wilkes said:

"Since the Football Association developed the FA Charter for Quality there have been huge strides made in the development of young players and we here at Carlisle United, with the backing of the Football League intend to be at the forefront of that. In general, and certainly at the Club, there is now more contact time with the players, vastly improved facilities and better qualified and trained professional staff.

Here at Carlisle United we are proud of our Youth Policy. It has reaped huge rewards in the past with some of our young players progressing all the way through to full international appearances and we intend to ensure that we are producing that kind of quality again in the future.

Our focus is on providing a first class Centre of Excellence experience for all of our young players. The development of these players in a safe, happy and caring environment is of paramount importance to us and we aim to give every individual the opportunity to improve themselves and their skills and to, ultimately, progress to the first team squad here at Carlisle United.

With the continuing development of our Centre of Excellence we are now in a position to offer some of the best facilites available to our young players. All we ask in return is that our youngsters give us their best, all times, and that they come here to enjoy their experience and to learn from it.

Working together we can ensure that their stay is a good one and I wish off of our players every success with us at Carlisle United."

Neil McDonald believes that the Centre of Excellence is a vital part of Carlisle United's future.

"As the manager of Carlisle United I place great emphasis on giving young Centre of Excellence players the opportunity to push through to become professional footballers.

The Club is currently in the development of the facilities both in and around the ground and an investment in a successful Youth policy is a natural and necessary progression from that.

Carlisle United has a proud tradition of Youth development and we intend to ensure that we reproduce the success of the recent past in this field in the not too distant future.

It is in the interests of everybody, from the local community and the fans to the playing staff and directors, to ensure that a sound workable Youth system is in place. We are striving to achieve that here at the Club and we expect to reap the rewards because of it.

I look forward to seeing the Centre of Excellence players develop as individuals and as footballers and I hope to be welcoming some of them in to the first team set up in the future."

The Centre of Excellence runs training nights at Caldew school on Tuesday and Thursday nights and matches are played at Frenchfields on Sunday mornings. There are currently 8 teams representing Carlisle United - the U9s, U10s, U11s, U12s, U13s, U14s, U15s and U16s.

With so many young players to coach and organise the Centre has to have  plenty of qualified staff to make everything run smoothly.

Further details will follow in future Centre of Excellence articles.