Will St George’s Park Bring England Level With Rest of the world?

On December 1, 2011

Speaking to The Guardian, David Sheepshanks revealed that the St George’s Park project remains “on schedule and on budget”, meaning English football should open the doors to its new home in late summer 2012.

The national football centre was much debated when the project was first announced and was subject to many power struggles and financial issues before the first building work started back in March this year – more that 30 years after the idea of a national football centre was first discussed.

The centre is designed to be the home of England squads of all ages and a central hub for football development.

It’s often described as the English equivilent to Clairefontaine, the French academy that helped to develop the nations ‘golden generation’. Ex-Clairefontaine students include; Theirry Henry, William Gallas and Nicolas Anelka.

The FA aim to deliver 50,000 courses a year from the national football centre. “Courses could range from introductory courses in football finance to leadership training to personal coaching, educating the individual not just the football player,” said Sheepshanks.

Coach Development

Currently, compared to other leading European football nations; Spain, France, Germany and Italy, England has:

• Less than 10% of the average number of Uefa B coaches in these countries
• Only 16% of the number of Uefa A level coaches
• Just 12% of the number of ‘Pro’ level coaches

“We have a long-term vision that every footballer who wants to be coached by a qualified coach can have access to one,” explained Sheepshanks. “At the moment we have 103,000 qualified coaches and by 2018 we would like to have 250,000 qualified coaches.”

Grass Roots Benefits

Sheepshanks also explained that St George’s Park will have benefits for the grass roots game; “While the main interest for many might be around the elite, it’s incredibly important that what St George’s Park stands for permeates right the way down the football pyramid and is a catalyst and an inspiration to the grass roots game.”

“When I am asked about grassroots accessibility to the site once finished, I always emphasize the opportunities for the local community and particularly young footballers in the near villages who will be able to use the community use pitches and facilities on site, side-by-side with the elite players and coaches that St. George’s Park will also house.”

The German Way

Back in 2002/3 season the German FA (DFB) had a major re-structure, with the aim of developing young talent. Speaking to FourFourTwo magazine back in October, the DFB’s Technical Director and ex-Dortmund player, Mattius Sammer explained;

“The concept is supposed to rest on two pillars – the professional clubs’ centres of excellence plus the German FA’s own programme with many regional training centres.”

“The DFB opened opened 366 regional bases, where professional, salaried coaches now work with some 14,000 young players between the ages of 11 and 14, in addition to the training done at their respective clubs.”

The German’s are certainly on the right track, across 2008 and 2009 they won three youth titles; U21, U19 and U17 European Championships. “Generally speaking the progress has been outstanding,” said Sammer. “But we still have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Whether St George’s Park will be as successful as Clairefontaine or whether the youth development changes will see similar success to those made by the German FA back in 2002-03 are certainly questions for the future. But the national football centre seems like a positive move for the English game.

What do you think – will St George’s Park bring England level with the rest of the world?