English youth football destroyed by the FA

[knowingeye]

Watch and listen

Is he right?

[bradwell]

yes he is,and the fa don't care
they will keep making the rich clubs richer and the grass roots levels of football will continue to suffer

[Northy]

I've just received a survey from the FA via Cheshire FA to complete, it's about grass roots football -
"The FA’s National Game Strategy 2008-12 will outline how we will work both nationally and locally to develop football to ensure you can all enjoy the game in a safe, positive environment. "
It’s important to us that we now get your feedback on what you think needs to be done to improve football at a local level. We also want to hear about your thoughts on us, your local County Football Association.
I'm an unpaid volunteer being asked by men in £100k a year football jobs what I think is wrong????

[thorney1]

typical! people who get paid the money dont know what to do as they dont love the game, just the money!
and the people who love the game and not the money, are doing their bloody job for them!

[JoeinOz]

One problem is that the whole English approach to football is about passion. People drone on and on and on and on and on and on about it. If Johan Cruyff had been English everyone would have called him a tosser because he didn't fly around putting head high tackles in with blood on his shorts.

Englands exit wasn't to do with lack of passion its to do with a players lack of ability.
The problem is that we hype up the Premiership, bring in foreigners to make it more tactical and more gifted than the qualities we breed, sell it to almost 200 countries because of its physical conflict and its relative honesty . . . and delude ourselves that this makes the world tremble.

[JoeinOz]

Just watched it again. Quirky that Keggy Keegle says English kids are lazy. Didn't he scrap the reserve team at Newcastle preferring to spend that money on buying players? Hardly encouraging quality player development is it?

[A-teen_six_T3]

The whole English approach to sport is wrong.

I've posted this before...

Other countries especially Australia (Joe could back me upon this) make sport a priority at a very young age. Valuable motor skills are learned from when a child learns to walk. We don't encourage this. We have nowhere near enough PE in schools

PE learns a person a lot of valuable life skills such as team work communication, leadership,problem solving, trial and error, commitment, persistence, not giving up etc

Back to football - When I was a lad (I'm only 21 now) every single one of my mates wanted to become a pro football player, every night in the sentinel there were adverts for players wanted. If you wanted play you could get a team. Albeit they might be shit, and you might not gt a game

Now we have a couple of problems with this.

Firstly, Not enough parents want to be managers/coach's. Every manager needs to be FA qualified...At least level 1..Level 1 £110 takes around a week, Level 2 £250 takes around a few months to complete this is time effort and money. Enough money gets pumped into the FA via sponsorships etc to enable "scholarships" for coaches and parents. Saying that the FA level 1 coaching badge is pretty much straight forward nowhere near worth £100 they just teach a few drills and games, They could put them on a DVD sell that for £20 be more worth while! So therefore there isn't enough teams to go around for people who want to play and of those teams..A lot of them are very click, pick the top class players, there mates sons and daughters and so on, so a passionate player willing to learn and improve may not get the Chance to do so. Add this to the fact that over 80% of children have access to a computer, it is too easy for them to say "I'd rather play on FIFA, it's better plus you don't get wet" etc etc

Foreigners coming into the game is a big problem, when I was growing up, only the top teams had foreign players. We all remember Chelsea's foreign legion, Wenger bringing every tom dick and harry in overmars, Henry, Boa Morte etc. It was considered, O.K I'm never going play for them teams but I might play for Stoke or Swansea or whoever. Now a days leagues as low as the conference have players from across the globe

Surely it is time for a nationality cap to be put on teams.

Instead of paying of shitty managers, the FA should be paying parents to go onto coaching courses...And the courses need to be looked at and changed.

[knowingeye]

joeinoz. Keegan got rid of all of the development structure at Newcastle last time but then went on to become ringmaster, opening his own "Soccer Circus" in 2006, aimed at developing football skills for the young, which after only six weeks started laying off staff.

Bring on the clowns!

[JoeinOz]

Going beyond the group stages is by any historical measure a good performance for England
and the problem is that few people seem able to get their heads around that. Our record since 66 isn't great. In the last 38 years we have reached a World Cup semi two a Euro semi and a couple of world cup quarter finals. In the same period Holland have reached two WC finals and a semi and won the European one. Bulgaria have reached a WC semi. Sweden have got to a WC semi and a Euro semi. Poland have reached a WC semi and finished 3rd in 1974. Belgium have reached a Euro final and a WC semi. And, of course, Greece are European champions.

So since 66* our record, when compared to other European nogger nations, gives new meaning to the word average. Yet people get annoyed because, for example, we'll never 'win anything with Sven.' Its unlikely we'll win a competition whoever the manager is! We'd all love to but to actually expect England to win a tournament is based on wishful thinking. Theres no great tradition to justify that sort of expectancy. So in a tournament if we get through the group we've fulfilled expectancy. Personally, I always look at getting through the group then take it from there. Usually as soon as we face a side with genuine aspirations to win the tournament we get knocked out. In 1990 it was great fun but, with all respect, Belgium and Cameroon weren't contenders to lift the trophy.

I'm certainly not saying we shouldn't try to win tournaments I'm just saying that we should keep our hopes in perspective.


*our record before 66 wasn't great...Bela Horizonte anyone?

[bgpotter]

I dont think all English kids are lazy but they are not encouraged to practice the skills like "foreign kids". Many years ago my son was being scouted by Spurs and a couple of other teams - they were impressed with his skills and he was two footed - he was regulary training with the Brazilian futbol de Salao team in East london and regularly played against Ipswich and West Ham academies etc (Until splitting his knee cap into two parts put an end to all that!)
But when he was playing for his local team parents were constantly on his back - "stop doing those stupid tricks" (when he did a cruyff turn or some such, or step overs a la ronaldo). This was combined with the coach regularly on at him to "boot it up the pitch" or to "hack him down". In the end he stopped playing for the "english" local team and just played for the Brazilain training team.
We dont need more "parent or teacher coaches" - we need more coaches who are qualified to teach the skills we need and are not wholly into "we must win" against another team of 12 year olds ( or whatever age) like it was a cup final.
In Brazil they have no competitive 11 a side matches until age 14 and kids are not discarded because they are "not big enough" like in the UK - as in Juninho's case when he was a boy and very small they just had him play with younger kids more his size - it wasnt all about age and size and being big and being able to boot a ball as far as you can at age whatever.
I have seen some great coaching in the Uk but unfortunately most has been dire - most by parents who meant well but hadnt got a clue! Until this changes England will coontinue to underachieve.
Even in Bulgaria the style and level of coaching is now superior to much of what is on offer in England.
Sorry - rant over - i'll get off my soap box now!
Puts coat on and leaves!
;-)

[JoeinOz]

The nature of the English game doesn't lend itself to international success. In his book Gianlucca Vialli emphasises how English players don't really 'think football'.

Collectively a shift in mindset is required to alter the raving and drooling for 'passion'. Keegans England had the passion thats craved....but were outmanouevred in 2000. It was notable that in the game against Romania when Romania needed to score Keegan was screaming from the touchline to increase the pace. Ienei, despite needing a goal to stay in the competition, told his players to settle down and play calm possession football. Could Keegan's request for speed could quite possibly have been because he didn't really know what else to say?

For Romania 2000 see Croatia 2007. Outthought and, for long spells, outplayed. Yet the one thing many people hark back to is the idea that there isn't enough 'passion'. Passion manifests itself by way of crashing tackles and putting your bonce amongst the boots to win a header. These are positive qualities but to make an impression at international tournaments you need a wider range to your game. Many English players have never considered this wider range....largely because of the nature of English football.

Finally, getting to what bgpotter said, the emphasis needs to be put on skill and technique from an early age. And clubs and authorituies need to invest thoroughly in youth development and regard it as a postive step for the future instead of a costly overrhead. Until these steps are put in place and the whole game adjusts its perspective England will continue to under achieve.

Bearing in mind the limitations of many England players quarter final is a standard place to finish. But when you look at how much of a football country England is and how prominent the game is in the national psyche its fair to say more than one competition should have been won by now. Can you imagine an England player dominating a game like Zidane did against Brazil in 2006?