An integral and fundamental part of the football club’s strategy is to invest and encourage youth development through the Clubs academy.
In 2009 when the club were relegated from League 2 to become a non-league club the funding received from the authorities for the academy was halved by £90k. This was a huge disappointment and left a large void in the academy budget. A group of volunteer supporters therefore decided to help with the launch of SOLYD. The objective of SOLYD was to raise funds for the club’s academy to help bridge the short fall in funding.
Supporters quickly rallied to the cause and many supporters set up monthly donations through a direct debit scheme. Also, over the years money was raised through activities such as race nights, BBQs at the Bricklayers Arms, quiz nights, tending the bar at venue 2 and a SOLYD beer amongst many other activities to raise money.
Over the last decade the Towns youth academy has benefited from the donations from SOLYD. Andy Awford has the Town academy manager has experienced the benefits first-hand that the donations have brought to the youth development programme. Andy quoted “since I’ve been at the Club, SOLYD has contributed to various things to improve the academy. I remember the FA cup youth run a few years ago when we asked SOLYD for a little bit of help with overnight stays and hotel costs and things like that”.
There are certain items that are nice to have but would make a positive difference and that is where SOLYD has played an important role, items such as laptops, educational resources, and tour cost to name a few. In fact, since the non-league days SOLYD has donated over £100k to the club’s academy.
SOLYD has been a huge benefit to the academy over the last decade. To keep both the momentum going and to continue to build on its past success it was decided in 2019 to bring SOLYD under the umbrella of the Luton Town supporters Trust. This will allow us both to keep the momentum going and to build on its past success. The Youth development at the Club has always been recognised as a key ingredient of the heritage of Luton Town FC; you only have to look as far as James Justin!
The Trust fundamentally believes that SOLYD must remain and continue to be a priority. Please watch out for future fund raising activities / events and you too can play a part, please remember “together we are stronger”.
If you would like to contact us regarding SOLYD please send us an email.
