FOOTBALL
formats at Under 7 level up to adult 11-a- side from 2013 to 2014 is mooted, as are changes in selection that could see club age groups determined by the calendar, not academic, year. Another element of the future vision for
youth football is the education of parents and coaches to ensure a more child-cen- tred environment. Levett says it will draw on the Respect campaign and the sharing of good practice: “It’s about making sure we share the messages that children are saying about their game and recognise that it’s ‘their’ game – not the adult game. “Let the kids enjoy it and get away
from the win at all cost culture and teach kids to play the game. By virtue they’ll win more because they’ll get better,” he says.
Facility investment Something that will certainly help facili- tate the development of players from an early age is the quality of pitches and training venues – an area, which Mark Pover believes is vital: “It’s well under- stood in football that if you don’t have the pitches, you don’t have a game. Somewhere along the line, somebody’s
ST GEORGE’S PARK...
located near Burton-upon-Trent in Staffordshire. Construction is now un- derway on the venue, which will provide a base for the FA’s coach education agenda and will provide a development centre for refereeing, sports science and administration. The complex will also provide a train-
S
ing venue for each of the FA’s 22 repre- sentative teams – including the England senior men’s team. The FA’s head of the national game,
t George’s Park is the FA’s flagship development – a new national centre for football that will be
Kelly Simmons, believes its value will be significant: “It’s about having a hub that’s a real focus for excellence and having the best courses, research and materials and cascading that down through the coaching networks,” she says. St George’s Park has been a number of
years in planning, but it has been a project that the FA had to put on the backburner due to the construction of the new Wemb- ley Stadium in London. Now, the complex is set to provide a purpose-built venue to improve coaches and enhance the standard of football in England. “It’s beneficial in that you have a central location that you can take people to that
they can train at, and that everything is there that will help and support the development of those players,” explains national facilities manager Mark Pover. “You won’t just have the pitches and video modules, but you’ll also have sport science, rehabilitation – all of the aspects of the professional game.” Pover says the centre could also
have a positive impact on groundman- ship: “We’ll use Burton as a centre for innovation, looking at new techniques and supporting our partnership with the Institute of Groundsmanship to deliver and emphasise the importance of groundsmanship as a profession.”
There should be a move away from the ‘win at all costs’ culture so kids can just play the game
got to look at the investment and the stock of facilities and improve them.” Kelly Simmons argues that investment
in pitches and facilities has benefited greatly under the NGS, although she says that more can be still be done. Pover backs that sentiment up, saying that there has been nearly £750m invested in facilities over the past decade. However, it is believed that only 5-6 per cent of England’s facility stock has been covered with that spending.
With the FA unable to cover the re-
mainder itself, it is looking to support improvement projects being carried out by schools, local authorities and other groups across the country. A Technical Standards document is due to be re- leased later this year, which will contain FA specifications for all aspects of a foot- balling venue – from pitches, to changing rooms, through to floodlighting. “We would expect that, if we’re not funding it, people would use what the
The national centre for football will be a hub for player development
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