THE Rangers Youth Development Company have handed over £400,000 to the Academy at the Hummel Training Centre as supporters invest in the next generation of Light Blues stars.

Money from a range of initiatives, including Rangers Lotto and Rising Stars, help fund the work that Head of Academy Craig Mulholland and his coaches undertake.

And Mulholland is grateful for the backing he has received once again after previous donations of £250,000 and £175,000 over the last two years.

He said: “On behalf of all the staff and players at the Academy, we would genuinely like to thank Colin Stewart and his team for their ongoing, fantastic support.

"The Rangers Youth Development Company has supported the Academy for more than 50 years and we are thrilled to receive this latest donation of £400,000, which is an incredible amount.

“I would also like to thank the Rangers supporters, whose contribution allows us to undertake our exciting and ambitious plans for the Academy. Together I am confident we can achieve something special.

“The progress our Academy has made in the last three years has been phenomenal - a new innovative elite schools programme at Boclair Academy where 30 young Rangers players undertake up to 18 hours of contact time per week, the appointment of top coaches such as Graeme Murty, Peter Lovenkrands, David McCallum, Malky Thomson, Stephen Wright, Brian Gilmour, Kevin Thomson and Gregory Vignal to name but a few and we tripled our staff numbers in our Performance and Analysis teams.

“We increased our number of international youth players from 17 to 32, doubled our number of scouts, undertook an innovative European games programme which saw wins over the likes of Benfica, Bayern Munich, Villareal, Valencia, Copenhagen, and AEK Athens and created a new Academy culture & football methodology.

“We achieved a score of 88% when independently audited by top European auditors – the highest in Scotland and higher than the average of top European Academies – and took part in more than 240 cross border games to create player challenge.

“These are only some of the many achievements that we could list. It has been an incredible journey delivered at pace and one that would not be possible without the work of RYDC.”

All profits from the RYDC have been directed to the Academy structure since 2002 and almost £8million has been handed over in the last 17 years.

Director of Operations Colin Stewart made the presentation after the friendly win over HJK Helsinki at Ibrox on Sunday.

He said: “The Rangers Youth Development Company is delighted to present the Youth Academy with another £400,000 and this takes our total donation to the club’s youth programme to £825,000 in just three years.

“RYDC is totally committed to assisting youth development at Rangers and the fans deserve great credit once again for their unbelievable backing. They go above and beyond in their support for the club and RYDC’s initiative and I thank each and every one.

“We have a great working relationship with Craig Mulholland and his Academy team and I know they all greatly appreciate the level of financial support we are able to provide. Steven Gerrard has given many talented youth players the chance to train and feature with the first team squad in 2018/19 and we are pleased to play our part in the development of talent at the Hummel Training Centre.”