SUNDERLAND yesterday launched a £10m academy project which chairman Bob Murray believes will provide the best facilities in British football.

Work has started on landscaping 19 football pitches and building a new training ground at Whitburn, just a few miles from the Stadium of Light.

The 200-acre site will house the academy, where talented schoolkids from the age of eight upwards will be developed, as well as the club's multi-national squad.

Murray said: "We have been to Ajax, Norway, France, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Middlesbrough and picked the best from all of them.

"We need to groom, keep and attract world-class players to this club and everything should be in place by the summer of 2002."

The first phase - flattening and laying the pitches - will take ten months while building work on the training complex is likely to continue for a further eight months after that.

"We have not been able to do this sooner because of planning difficulties and we apologise for that," added Murray, who sees the project as even more important than the stadium.

"Our existing training facilities are totally inadequate for a club of this stature and this will take us two-thirds of the way towards our £50m plans for the club.

"We have 16 nationalities here but we are very keen on developing British players and we are dedicated to the academy no matter what happens with the EC transfer decision.

"This is where it's all going to happen. It's an enormous scheme."

Boss Peter Reid said: "The facilities will be top-class and certainly among the best in the country."