The Structure Of English Football.

[EskWeston 696]

This is a hot topic at the moment and rightly so considering we are not producing English managers of a high enough quality and we are not producing young players enough who can compete with their foreign counterparts. But here are some interesting articles from the BBC site on this subject:

Burton decision:

Establishing a national football centre at Burton is as important as the appointment of Fabio Capello as England coach, says Sir Trevor Brooking. Brooking, the Football Association's development director, has urged his bosses to approve the much-delayed project at Thursday's board meeting.

"Burton is certainly up there with anything else we're going to do," said the FA's development director.

"If we don't get it right the England coach's job will get that much harder."

BBC Sport understands that supporters of the project, which is in Staffordshire, are confident it will get the go-ahead on Thursday, albeit in a scaled-down version of the original plans.

But there remains significant opposition on the FA board, most notably from those within the professional game. The leading Burton sceptics are believed to be Football League chairman Lord Mawhinney and Premier League chairman Sir David Richards.

Mawhinney's hostility to the NFC project is believed to have been stiffened by his annoyance that the FA canvassed opinion on Burton from the 72 Football League clubs without his knowledge. The governing body has been forced to apologise for this diplomatic gaffe.

And Richards has always been unconvinced about the scheme's purpose, value for money and venue. He, like Mawhinney, is an advocate of smaller, regional bases that would support the work already done by the clubs' academies and centres of excellence.

Thursday's meeting will involve FA commercial director Jonathan Hill presenting four scenarios to the 12-man board - go ahead with the NFC as planned, approve a scaled-down version, redevelop the site with a partner or scrap the scheme entirely.

Despite the dissenting voices, a more modest interpretation of the original blueprint is expected to get the board's approval - although there is a chance the final nod will not come until after the FA's new, independent chairman is in place next year.

For Brooking, the green light cannot come soon enough, as he views Burton as a key component of the "root and branch" changes he wants to make to the way we produce footballers in this country.

Hailed as the English equivalent of French football's Clairefontaine or Italy's Coverciano, the NFC was intended to be the training base for all England teams - from the U16s to the senior side - and act as the focal point for the FA's coaching and player development work.

"I think we all believe we should have a hub site, a catalyst to pull all this together," stated the 59-year-old.

"The debate has been going on for a while but you would like to think that it could be taken to the next stage.

"It's for the board to decide but it would certainly help in the overall picture of what we're trying to do. Our regional and national coaches don't have a base."

Brooking is not opposed to the concept of regional bases - and points out that the French Football Federation has now opened eight "mini Clairefontaines" around the country - but is adamant that Burton must come first.

"If you get the green light then you can look at what needs to be put in place at Burton," he said.

"There are lots of options. Is it just a one-off and do you link it with the academies that are already out there? Or do you need a couple of regional centres too, or more?

"Or you can tap into the English Institute of Sport and UK Sport outlets?"

Interestingly, one of the more vocal advocates of the need for an English 'Clairefontaine' has been Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

"It is crucial. You cannot imagine that in 2007 a federation of the size of England has no headquarters and no grounds to develop their whole football education," said the Frenchman.

If Burton is approved, a business plan could be agreed by February and construction of the NFC's main buildings could start, with a target completion date of 2010. The bill is believed to have risen from £30m six years ago to £80m now.

First mooted in former FA technical director Howard Wilkinson's 1997 Charter for Quality, the NFC started to take shape in 2001 when 350 acres of Staffordshire countryside were purchased and plans were drawn up.

But a series of delays, primarily caused by the governing body's Wembley-related financial problems, culminated in a decision to halt construction in 2004 - two years after the NFC was originally supposed to open - with only the basic infrastructure and pitches completed.

The project has been in limbo ever since, with some FA board members calling for the governing body to cut its losses and sell Burton. This would result in a considerable loss as over £20m has been spent already and the site's re-sale value is believed to be in the region of £5m.

For Wilkinson, the man who started it all, the time for debate has passed.

"I wouldn't be personally offended if they want to change the place or the buildings," the 64-year-old former Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday manager told BBC Sport.

"What matters to me, and others, is that we do something. We have to stop talking about Burton and switch our minds on to the concept of education and the need for a centre that is a focal point of that education.

In terms of the long-term future of football in this country, the decision on Burton is more crucial than the decision on who should manage England.

"We have to leave all personal and political considerations aside and get this right. It's critical that we have a National Football Centre and it's critical that the National Football Centre embodies a philosophy that can take us forward.

"It's a no-brainer for me. The main function of any governing body is to educate and develop. It's crucial to the lifeblood of any sport. That has to be the priority and you cannot take risks with it or it will come back to haunt you."

[EskWeston 696]

Coaching crisis:

Sir Trevor Brooking says English football has been "hugely negligent" in the way it develops young talent. He told BBC Sport that relief at Fabio Capello's arrival as coach must not be allowed to mask England's problems.

"Unless we take the initiative now, missing Euro 2008 would be even more of a sacrilege," said the Football Association's development director.

"We must not let the debate on coaching and player development drop. We must invest and transform what we do."

Brooking, who has been at the FA since 2003, made it clear who he believes should guide that transformation.

"In other countries there is no doubt that the governing body takes the lead," stated the former England and West Ham midfielder.

"The governing body has to look long-term. We are the only ones looking that far forward and that is why I believe we should co-ordinate it."

Brooking's comments come after BBC Sport research has revealed just how few English-qualified players the country's leading clubs are producing.

Since the start of the 2002-03 season, only 53 English players have made Premier League debuts and subsequently started four more top-flight games. That averages out as one genuine first-teamer per academy every two years or just 10 new English-qualified players a season across the league.

A recent Professional Footballers' Association report, ominously titled Meltdown, said the number of overseas players making Premier League debuts each season is running at three times that of English players from the academies.

Brooking first voiced his concerns about the threat to English football posed by the Premier League's appetite for overseas talent to BBC Sport in September.

And since England failed to qualify for Euro 2008, the trickle of support for his views has become a torrent. But the 59-year-old is no knee-jerk "Little Englander". His solution is to raise the bar, not the drawbridge.

"When you have to decide to sign on somebody at 16, the overwhelming feedback from the clubs is that the English youngsters fall down on the technical side," revealed Brooking.

"The coaches like their mentality, their hunger, their desire, but that doesn't compensate for not being on a par technically with overseas youngsters.

"That is a clear sign we've got to get a long-term philosophy in place for our English kids at five to 11 and then 11 to 16, so that when they to get to 16-plus it is tough for our clubs to say 'sorry, you're not good enough'. At the moment, they're telling me it's too easy."

At the news conference to officially appoint Capello as England's new manager, FA chief executive Brian Barwick said a "strategic review" of the governing body's approach to coaching would be announced in March.

Barwick added: "We have talked about 'root and branch' and there has been some scepticism about whether we will see that through and whether it was just a smokescreen to recruit a senior coach. It wasn't.

"The FA's strategic review will take us through the next five years of our life at the Football Association. A direct part of it will be to work out how we take the England situation forward in a positive way.

"One of the ways is to make sure Fabio's skills are 'sucked out' of him in terms of getting us not just to pick winning teams but to make sure we use his great skill across our whole coaching framework.

"We also want to make sure the framework Trevor is building up has good, strong investment and we are giving people chances to become better coaches."

That investment could be significant, as the governing body's finances have never been healthier.

Barwick confirmed that the FA's revenues could exceed £1bn in the next four and a half years - a remarkable turnaround for an organisation that appeared to be on its uppers during the depths of the Wembley saga.

While much has been made of Capello's cut of these riches, Brooking said the FA's investment in coaching and player development would dwarf the outlay on the senior side's coaching team.

"We've got significant money coming in next year from the new broadcasting deal but we need to know what people want from us," said Brooking.

"A designated coaching unit to support all the clubs? More regional coaches? Do we ring-fence some money for five to 11 skills coaches for every club?

"We have the ability to support the clubs so much better than has happened. But in order to do that we have to have the capability, like every other governing body in the world, to go out and do it."

The FA's ability to act, however, remains a major bone of contention and Brooking feels he has been prevented from doing his job properly by the professional clubs' refusal to work with him.

"I certainly haven't got the power or responsibility to implement change, unlike, for example, Gerard Houllier in France," Brooking said of the France Football Federation's technical director.

"He has the power to change everything and anything, I haven't got that."

The clubs, however, feel the FA should stick to coaching badges and grass roots schemes, as the professional game knows better.

The governing body's technical team is desperate to revamp the existing coaching and player development structure set up by former FA technical director Howard Wilkinson's Charter for Quality in 1997.

It was that document that put paid to the FA's own academy at Lilleshall and brought in the current system of academies - of which there are now 41 - and their less expensive relatives, the centres of excellence.

Brooking, Wilkinson and almost every coach in the game will tell you the original plan needs updating. Who takes the lead in that process and who oversees its implementation is another matter entirely.

In 2005, the clubs - unhappy with the FA's perceived meddling - asked Richard Lewis, the chief executive of the Rugby Football League, to conduct a review of the academy system. That review was published in July of this year but further action has been conspicuous by its absence.

Brooking, who admitted he did not see the need for the review at the time but welcomed its findings, said he was now eager for it to be implemented.

A source close to the Lewis Review negotiations told BBC Sport that there was "85% agreement" on what should happen next but the main sticking point was on the "corporate governance issue" - namely, who should run player development in this country.

An announcement on the result of these negotiations is expected early in 2008 and a number of "quick wins" can be expected.

Those are believed to be a harmonisation of standards across the leagues, more emphasis on improving coaching, more age-specific work, a relaxing of the rules concerning matches and a loosening of the loan system to give youngsters more first-team chances further down the pyramid.

For Brooking, these changes are long overdue. And regardless of how the system is regulated in the future, the footballing knight is worried it will all come too late for a lost generation of English players.

"I think a lot of older players in the system are damaged goods because technically they're not able to cope with the demands," he conceded.

"If you can't play it from the back, or in tight areas, it doesn't matter how good the coach is, you're not going to make it."

[EskWeston 696]

Technique gap:

"Unless you change your whole approach to football, nothing will get better."

Carlos Alberto, a man who once scored a goal so exquisitely-crafted it could have been made in heaven, is not in the habit of mincing his words.

His finest moment - the sublime last goal in Brazil's 4-1 thumping of Italy in the 1970 World Cup final - means he knows how to succeed at the highest level and what it takes to get there.

Such a damning verdict on the English game gives the World Cup-winning captain no pleasure at all, but he, like many others, fears that unless things change, England will get left further behind.

The shambolic, failed attempt to reach Euro 2008 that ended with the humiliation of a 3-2 defeat by Croatia at Wembley was followed by the oft-repeated criticisms directed at the English game - namely a lack of technique.

It comes as no surprise then, that it takes Carlos Alberto only 19 seconds into our interview to mention the word that seems to be casting a shadow over the English game once more.

"The most important thing that can happen to English players is that they improve their technique," the 63-year-old tells BBC Sport.

"Technical skills like dribbling, good movement, the ability to pick a pass are key to breaking teams down, but you just don't see it when England play, their style is always the same

"They never changed, they never improvised and they never improved. They put the high ball into the area and try to head it in, but they need to focus on more technical skills.

"I also have the feeling that the England players need to change their mentality, the spirit with which they play football.

"Sometimes they play as if they do not feel the game. I hope they understand these things and try to change because every other country changed a long time ago."

Fabio Capello has admitted that one of his biggest challenges as England coach will be to overcome the "up and at 'em" philosophy that is so prevalent in the Premiership.

At his first news conference as England manager, he was asked how he might change a style based primarily on pace and intensity.

"This is something he says he is going to have to work on," Capello's interpreter said.

Sir Trevor Brooking, the director of development at the Football Association, believes England lags behind because the players are not learning these technical skills early enough.

"We need to start earlier," Brooking told BBC Sport. "Anybody emerging from the 5-11 age group has to be comfortable on the ball.

"Can you get this ball under control? Can you kill it instantly? Have you got the know-how to make decisions? Do you know how to use it and select the right pass?

"Now if you can't do all that when you get to 11-a-side situations in the 11-16s, you're going to struggle desperately. You won't be able to cope if that basic stuff isn't there."

What is becoming increasingly evident is that if the technique of English players is going to match that of the best countries in the world, the FA must get its coaching structure right.

Carlos Alberto, who also managed the Nigeria, Oman and Azerbaijan national sides, fears that by the time kids join academies, the skills they need later on in their careers have already been lost.

"It must start with the very young children and they must get the best coaches coaching these kids," he added.

"When the kids are so young, it is not time to think about winning, to think only about winning as you do.

"You have to develop them, teach them how to pass a ball, how to control a ball, how to control a game, how to cross, head and shoot.

"It is not important to tell the kids to win - you must instead teach them the skills that will help them to become winners.

"Most of the time when you are young, you should be playing with a football. Give a ball to each kid, tell them to go home and look after the ball and sleep with it even!"

Brooking says important changes are already underway at grassroots level to help improve the development of core technical skills.

"We want to take the intensity out of it, especially in the younger age groups," said Brooking. "So we do more individual ball work and concentrate on technique.

"With the younger groups the philosophy is about fun and just letting youngsters play, we have to take away the pressure of results.

"There are one or two pilot schemes where we've scrapped the leagues for under-nines - why are we putting them under the pressure of getting results?

"We're not allowing them to express themselves and it takes the fun out of it because of all the pressure from the sidelines.

"So the adults have to sign a code of conduct and are roped off in the corner. There is no hollering at their children, just someone in charge who supports them and makes a few little comments.

"We're trying to give them a lot of small-sided playing time, getting them playing so they get as much contact time as possible."

Brooking argues that one of the major problems in England is a lack of defenders who can start attacks in the manner that right-back Carlos Alberto did so successfully in his 53 games for Brazil.

"I don't think we have enough defenders who are comfortable on the ball in attacking areas - creativity is a worry," continued Brooking.

"A lot of international sides see that now as a way of getting width and getting in behind defences but we don't have the depth, that is our challenge.

"Full-back is a clear problem - we have had one or two jumping three age groups in the development teams because of a lack of depth and that could be worrying in a few years' time."

Carlos Alberto also believes that England's big clubs must give more opportunity to homegrown players in order for the national team to benefit.

"They must change the rules of football in England to give chances to English players, not only bring foreigners into the Premier League," said the World Cup-winning skipper.

"The big teams like Arsenal and Chelsea must allow English kids to play so they can improve their skills at the highest level and concentrate on their improvisation.

"Unless all these changes are made, it is clear that the England national team will not improve."

[EskWeston 696]

Role for futsal?:

Brian Barwick famously consulted "12 wise men" from British and European football as he began his search for the new England manager.

Were he now to canvas the opinions of the best players in the world about the malaise in English football, it is possible that the word futsal would come up time and time again.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Ronaldinho both credit the skills-based game with making them the players they are today.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that the countries who excel at futsal - Brazil, Spain, Italy and Portugal - also feature prominently in the Fifa world rankings.

In contrast, England's senior futsal team is yet to win a match in 45 attempts and lost 4-2 and 6-3 in a double-header against Andorra in October.

Futsal is a five-a-side game played on a basketball-sized pitch with a weighted ball.

The emphasis is on improvisation, creativity and technique - you are unlikely to hear calls of "get stuck in" or "get rid of it" at a futsal match.

While it is widely played by youngsters in Brazil, Portugal and Spain, the game is still rare in England, where traditional five and 11-a-side matches predominate.

England's futsal coach, Graeme Dell, believes the desperate record of his team points to a wider malaise in the English game.

"A lot of the success of countries like Brazil or Italy has to do with the breeding of players in the younger age groups and the fact that they grow up playing futsal," he told BBC Sport.

"They learn to keep the ball in play because of the nature of the futsal ball and court."

Countries such as Spain host a professional domestic futsal league, in which players are paid as much as their 11-a-side counterparts.

Manchester City and England defender Micah Richards is one of the few top English footballers to have played futsal as a youngster.

"It did improve my technique," he told BBC Sport.

"It makes you more composed on the ball and makes you want the ball more, so you can do something with it."

Brentford introduced futsal to their training programmes a year ago, and coach Luis Melville says it is already making a difference to the technique of his players.

"Futsal makes players more difficult to play against in 11-a-side and gives them more tools in their armoury to be a more complete footballer," he told BBC Sport.

"Players find it challenging. Because space is at a premium on a futsal court, the ball has to be manipulated far more closely to the body.

"Players also have to do clever things with the ball and their foot skills improve. There is no hiding place on the court, so decision making is absolutely paramount."

Zinedine Zidane once said he was fortunate to have played football on the streets of Marseille until the age of 14, meaning no-one had the chance to coach skill and improvisation out of him.

"That is what futsal is all about," Dell says. "It's a platform to allow a player to use invention and game understanding to not only develop themselves but get out of trouble.

"Whatever drill or exercise you develop, you have to make the player think for themselves."

Dell says that a lot of English coaches have a "blinkered vision and are "doing the same thing year after year".

And he adds ominously: "Unless we start bringing the futsal concepts to the way in which we train young players we could be having this conversation again in 15 to 20 years' time."

[bombayblue™ 55]

"Unless we start bringing the futsal concepts to the way in which we train young players we could be having this conversation again in 15 to 20 years' time."

it's more about how much they put into action of the talk they are doing, even 50% of what they talk is realised english football will have jumped leaps and bounds..

[EskWeston 696]

What is being talked about is so basic and tried and tested in most of all the other major countries. Yet the FA are dragging their asses having this meeting and that meeting and it is all their politics that is holding it back.

Kids should be allowed to enjoy the game at a young age and not have the "win at all costs" mentality. The Futsal idea is a very clever one and should be used by all academies in parnership with their normal schedules. It encourages a young player to play the tight passing game that is important in developing the kinds of players we are looking for in this country.

It's no rocket science to have a look at what is a success in other countries and try and impliment that here.

[Fulham Broadway 16,845]

Quite a long read

Brooking is right in respect Burton is as important an innovation as Capello, but what happened to the ''root and branch'' upheaval they promised after it became clear that they'd appointed the Cunt with the Brolly ? I thought -and it should- apply to FA staff.

Carlos Alberto is also right when he states English players often lack a 'feel' for the game. Italian and Spanish teams often try to control the heart rate of the opponents through pace change , and are intuitive to opponents weaknesses.

Interesting that the Futsal players in Spain are paid as much as the eleven a side blokes !

[Badboy 1,526]

You know what is funny about all this, english people would not be talking about this if you qualified for the euro's.

[Fulham Broadway 16,845]

You're quite right BB, it's a reactive step to non qualification.

If we'd qualified , Barwick et al would be saying how they're vindicated in choosing McClaren.

[EskWeston 696]

I don't know, i think most people would agree, even if we qualified or not that there is a problem with the set up of English football. Young players are not allowed to enjoy football and are taught to win at all costs which does not encourage the breeding of creative and skillful players.

If we had qualified it would just have given the FA an excuse to put off making the changes that are needed to sort out the mess we have at the moment.

[Elliott 7]

I don't know, i think most people would agree, even if we qualified or not that there is a problem with the set up of English football. Young players are not allowed to enjoy football and are taught to win at all costs which does not encourage the breeding of creative and skillful players.

If we had qualified it would just have given the FA an excuse to put off making the changes that are needed to sort out the mess we have at the moment.

I'm absolutely certain badboy's right here, and the program would be ignored, at least by the officials who are actually able to do something about it.