Adam Murry has several sporting academies

Director Adam Murry has refused to be drawn on whether Bournemouth are about to announce plans for a new academy.

Murry, who has recently joined the club's board, has several sporting academies in Nepal and South Africa.

The locally-born philanthropist told BBC Radio Solent that the Cherries were hoping to make a firm announcement in the next 10 days.

It is expected that the founder of the Murry Foundation will help to drive the club's off-the-field activities.

There is speculation that Murry is to invest a six-figure sum in the club, although that was another subject which he refused to be drawn on during an interview with BBC Radio Solent.

However, the philanthropist was prepared to speak about the academies he has already set up in South Africa.

"These academies are for under-privileged children. They recognise untapped talent and we bring them through the academies on sporting scholarships," he said.

"We've just recently brought a lad over from South Africa to trial for Bournemouth and he's coming back in January now to continue that training with a hopeful contract to sign him up for two years."

Murry also spoke about his ambition to put the Cherries at the heart of the local community.

"I want to get a lot of schools involved now in the club - although they have school projects, I want to get it on a bigger scale," he said.

"We want to work a lot with the community now and my job is to get Bournemouth out into the community and get people who haven't so much as followed football before to come and support the club and get involved in community projects which we're going to launch."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version