RAINHILL High School has become a new further education partner for the Robbie Fowler Education and Football Academy (FEFA).

The school is already the official education centre for the best of Liverpool Football Club’s own under 18 students and helped nurture eight first team players including Raheem Sterling and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

However, with competition among academy-age players in England so intense, with one in 200 being offered full-time professional contracts, FEFA's link-up with Rainhill High aims to ensure young players are educated and equipped for alternative careers on offer in football and the sports and leisure industry.

FEFA was launched in 2015 by former Liverpool and England striker Robbie Fowler, and has seen four out of five of its students moving on to University last year.

This new partnership allows FEFA to recruit more students who want to study A Levels alongside their football, and more females aged under 18.

Rainhill High executive principal, John Pout said: “FEFA has already built an enviable reputation for its work with young people and we are delighted to be able to support its work.

“This is a perfect partnership in many ways. Like FEFA we set the highest educational standards, we have a proven track record thanks to our relationship with Liverpool FC, and we have consistently demonstrated a strong and robust approach to safeguarding, player welfare and financial management.”

Many of the Liverpool FC Academy players are also schoolboy internationals and Rainhill High works with FA staff from all home nations to ensure players can be successful at international level and up-to-date with schoolwork.

Mr Pout added: “In common with FEFA, girls’ football is also taking great strides at Rainhill. The first of the Liverpool FC Ladies U18s arrived at Rainhill last year and we anticipate that by September the entire squad will be educated in our sixth form, as well as completing all their training on site. These are exciting times.”

FEFA principal Brian McGorry added: “We’ve been talking to Rainhill for some time now and I’m delighted that we have been able to turn mutual respect into a formal partnership.

“It’s a relationship that’s seamless. Both of us want to offer young people the best education we can and by working with Rainhill we are now able to add A Levels to the FEFA portfolio. In the past we’ve had to signpost students elsewhere; now we can offer them a direct pathway into further and higher education as well as football.

“I know from personal experience how important education is. I was lucky in that after being released by Liverpool when I was 18, I was back in professional football at 21.

"But for a while my confidence was shattered and it was a tough time. At FEFA we’re all about making sure young people have viable career pathways, either in the football, sport and leisure, or business more widely.”