Bristol Rovers are looking for homes for their stars of the future.

The Pirates are trying to bring in youngsters from around the country as they look to develop their youth set-up.

But they need to find places for the players to stay while they are in Bristol and are on the look-out for people who can provide accommodation.

Families would be required to provide bed, breakfast and evening meal for lads aged between 16-18 and would be paid a weekly sum by the club to cover their costs.

Rovers reorganised their youth set-up last year, when they moved away from Filton College and returned to an in-house Scholarship scheme to help bring the youngsters closer to the first team.

They now use the same training base as the first-team squad at the South Bristol Sports Centre in Knowle.

Rovers' head of youth, Darren Patterson, said: "It is massively important to us to find families who will provide accommodation for these young lads.

"We are trying to broaden our net and improve our squad by getting the best young talent from around the country. Our priority remains with the local lads – but you can't consistently get good local players so we have to look elsewhere.

"In order to do this, we have to find digs and make sure the lads are well looked after.

"We need families who want to look after the kids, help them with their life skills and help make them into better men – while we make them into better footballers.

"We make sure the boys we take on are polite and respectful and we want them to become part of a family while they are here in Bristol.

"We will hopefully be getting some new boys in over the summer, so we are keen for people to get in contact straight away so we can have a waiting list of people ready to go.

"We do not want to get into a situation where we have talented youngsters wanting to play for us, but we have to turn them away as we do not have anywhere to house them."

Potential families would need to undertake a Criminal Records Bureau check before being able to house one of the young players. Anyone who thinks they might be able to help should contact Rod Wesson on 0117 952 4008 or email rodwesson@bristolrovers.co.uk