There may be resistance to some of the ideas from powerful elite clubs but after decades of failure at every World Cup since England’s triumph in 1966 and every European championship, the FA is taking action. The primary goal is to improve the technical standards of youngsters or else risk losing out on major honours for the foreseeable future.
“We have not won anything for 44 years and I am not saying these changes will make us world champions overnight,” said the FA’s Director of Football Development Trevor Brooking. “But we must improve the way we develop our young players and the way they are coached from the age of five to 16 and beyond. We need to develop more and better English players and hopefully they will eventually break into our elite clubs and the international team.”
Everything from the introduction of smaller-sized pitches for juniors to the mandatory release of players for international age-group tournaments are covered in the proposals which are expected to be approved by the FA board in April.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 29th, 2011.
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