REVAMPED plans for Sunderland AFC's proposed football academy are to be submitted to meet latest FA criteria.

But the addition of an indoor training area, plus other revisions to original plans for the Academy of Light site, on green belt land at Whitburn Moor Farm, South Tyneside, met with anger from opponents last night.

The club fears that without the indoor training area, and an on-site hostel for trainee footballers, it could lose academy status and leave Sunderland poor relations compared to rival Premiership teams, already using such facilities.

Detailed plans are expected to be finalised for submission to South Tyneside Council by late next month.

Club chairman Bob Murray said the indoor "training barn", would feature a Scandinavian wood frame design constructed from natural materials, to blend "sensitively" with the surrounding rural area.

The hostel, for up to 20 young footballers, would be added as an annexe to converted farm buildings which already have planning approval.

Other new features are a community classroom and a groundsman's store.

If the "training barn" is given the go-ahead, the club would scrap plans for one of the outdoor pitches on the 60-acre site to be floodlit.

Mr Murray warned that without the additional facilities, the FA Premier League five-year licence to operate as an academy would be in jeopardy when it comes up for its six-monthly review early in the New Year.

He said: "When we drew up original plans for our academy we pulled together our ultimate wish-list and later moderated this to what we considered was realistic.

"However, our wish-list is no longer just the ultimate vision, but rather becoming the norm.

"If Sunderland is to compete on equal terms with the best we must have the most advanced facilities possible."

Tim O'Leary, of the Green Belt Action Group (GBAG), which has opposed the academy proposals on the Whitburn Moor site, said the club's latest plans were outrageous.

"We said this would happen all the way along the line.

"We always knew that to be accepted as an academy this site wasn't suitable.

"They have gone back completely on what they pledged at the original planning inquiry."

Mr O'Leary said GBAG would now fight for a further public inquiry