REVISED plans for Sunderland AFC's long-awaited training academy have been submitted.

The club proposes adding a training barn - a full-size indoor football pitch - on the Academy of Light site on 60 acres of the former Whitburn Moor Farm, just north of Sunderland.

Apart from providing a permanent training area for the Black Cats' first team, it will be used by all the players on the club's books.

Should the proposal receive planning approval from South Tyneside Council, the academy will also be the training base for the England squad prior to one of next year's Euro 2004 qualifying matches, possibly against Turkey, to be played at the Stadium of Light.

England manager Sven Goran Eriksson announced plans to bring the England squad to the academy when he unveiled an inaugural stone on the site, in January.

Despite winning outline planning permission from the Secretary of State in February 2000, following an appeal, the club announced in December its intention to resubmit plans to include the training barn, which was not part of the original application.

Chairman Bob Murray said in order to meet new Football Association criteria to retain academy status the club had now added the indoor barn element, plus plans to include an on-site hostel for young players.

The revised proposals also feature a nature study classroom for use by local schoolchildren, located next to an extensive wetlands area, also on part of the Whitburn Moor site.

Work has begun on landscaping the site and a large trench has been prepared so the barn will be less obtrusive.

Mr Murray said: "Sunderland Football club is firmly committed to delivering the best football training facilities available anywhere in Europe.

"The announcement by Sven Goran Eriksson that he will base the England team in South Tyneside in April next year is testament to what is being developed here."

Opposition is expected to be lodged to the revised plans by the Green Belt Action Group, made up of residents of the nearby villages of Cleadon, Whitburn and Seaburn Dene, who objected to the original proposal