Jason Levien has revealed Trevor Birch and Julian Winter were driving factors behind the decision for Swansea City to downgrade their academy status last year.
Prior to the 2020/21 season, the bombshell was dropped that the academy had been dropped down from category one to category two.
It came after former chairman Birch - speaking earlier in 2020 - had confirmed the Swans would aim to keep their academy at category one.
The decision to drop to category two was not taken lightly by the club, although those in the corridors of power at the Liberty Stadium felt it was a way for the club to further reduce costs, particularly given the loss of revenue owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
And during a wide-ranging interview with selected members of the media, Swansea's co-owner Levien has confirmed that both former chairman Birch and current chief executive Winter played key roles in the academy change last year while adding their appointment of Steve Cooper as head coach ensured the club would continue to develop young players.
"We took a lot of advice on that from Trevor Birch and from Julian Winter and others who had experience in UK football," he said.
"I think we arrived at a decision as to where we can optimise the growth and development of players.
“We made a commitment to appointing managers that would play young players, that would focus on their development.
“We decided that whether it was category one or category two, what was most important was the investment in those players, in their development.
“We felt we could do it more efficiently, based on the current roles, as a category two.”
The change in academy status meant Swansea's Under-23s are no longer able to compete in Premier League 2.
Jon Grey's men are currently bottom of the Southern section of the Professional Development League having won just two of their 14 fixtures this season.
The club has produced a significant number of players from the academy and then sold them off for significant sums in the transfer window in recent years, including Oli McBurnie, Daniel James and Joe Rodon.
Current first team stars Matt Grimes, Connor Roberts, Jay Fulton, Liam Cullen and Ben Cabango all came through the club's youth system.
