Long article about youth football in England, but it's worth reading with regard to applying some methods to grassroots football in T&T
November 30, 2007
Sir Trevor Brooking facing tough calls to kick some sense into our game
The man charged with changing the climate in which English footballers grow addresses some of the issues raised in the Times series
Martin Samuel, Chief Football Correspondent
The director of technical development settled into his seat at shiny new Wembley to watch a vision of the future. The turf was divided into a grid of eight neat squares, five-a-side mini-pitches for the finals of a nationwide tournament. And as the whistle blew for kick-off, across half of these small spaces, Sir Trevor Brooking, the man charged with administering a climate in which the next generation of elite footballers can thrive, saw the same opening gambit: the ball launched in the air, from one end to the other.
“I thought: ‘Why are we allowing that?’ ” Brooking said. “Why let goalkeepers kick the length of the pitch? We know the teams that do it will often win because putting the ball in the opposition third at that age is always going to enjoy greater success than playing it out from the back, but skill development? None. And when the pitches get bigger and they can’t do that any more, what have those kids learnt? Nothing. I said to the mini-soccer review board that this must stop.”
And there, encapsulated in one frozen moment, is the crisis facing youth football in England. The emphasis on results above technical development, the win-at-all-costs mentality and the fact that the man at the top, bogged down in committees and red tape, now speaks more like an observer than a reformer.
Brooking recognises the problems and has the wit to address them, but increasingly he comments on the unfolding chaos rather than addresses it. When I wrote about an under-10 age group London district match, in which a 4ft 7in goalkeeper protected the same size goal as Petr Cech while undersized midfield players attempted to cover the same area as Frank Lampard, Brooking’s office was immediately on the telephone to arrange a meeting. Clearly, he wants allies and I even took Rob, the goalkeeper, to underline the argument. By the end, though, Rob’s eyes had glazed over at talk of reviews and reports. He wanted to know why he cannot play in a proportionate goal that gives him some chance of tipping a shot around a post. Instead, he learnt that the frustrations of youth football are only just beginning at age 10.
Brooking looked a beaten man at odd moments during our conversation. The scale of the job is wearing him down. “This should all be done by technical people, but it is not technical people making the decisions,” he said. “If they can just give us some money, leave us over here to make it work and judge us in ten years, this could be a defining moment. We can’t gloss over it, there is a core problem and the right people must be left alone to deal with it because as it stands, it is a foggy mess. All we hear is: ‘We’d like to do this, but . . .’ The FA should lead and be in total control of coaching and player development.
“We need to revamp, we know that. And I know to hear me say it doesn’t make sense. There is a lot I cannot defend. We should be the catalysts for change but at the moment we give too many choices over where and how you play, when we should be setting the rules. We have recommended pitch sizes for every age group, but some coaches and teachers are better organised than others at getting them and others will just take what they are given by the local council. It is the luck of the draw in terms of the environment you play in, right down to the atmosphere on the touchline. It is fragmented and that is not right. We are trying to help by having a national game strategy, which will come in next summer, but we know some county associations will be stronger at implementing it than others.
“I would ring-fence five million quid, train up a skill coach for the ages 5 to 11 and give him to every club. Except we can’t because while we have a national game strategy, for grass roots, we do not have a whole game strategy and this will only work if we get everybody involved from top to bottom. It is the Professional Game Board that decides that, but I don’t know what they are planning. We have a blank sheet of paper where we should have a plan.
“For example, when we tried to get something done about touchline behaviour towards officials, we were told we couldn’t go ahead without the support of the professional game, but they will be reluctant because they might have a player or manager with the same issues. Then the idea gets diluted. It is either integrated or it isn’t.We’re three quarters of the way, but there is more to do. And that last stage is the toughest. Getting rid of vested interest is the key.
“I don’t know how we will spend our money next summer. We should be telling Macclesfield and Mansfield what is going on at Manchester United, spreading news of good practice. I could impose certain things, but we would still have to carry the argument or some counties would make it difficult. We need to be more specific on pitch sizes, team numbers and behaviour. Yet I cannot pretend everyone thinks as I do. We have had two leagues write to us asking to start an 11-a-side competition for under-8 players. That is why we try to be flexible. We say you can play up to an hour; you can play two 30-minute halves, three 20 minutes, four 15 minutes. You can play five, six or seven-a-side. You’ve got to remember a lot of people disagreed with mini-soccer in the first place.”
Strength is what is needed. The strength to bypass obstacles such as the Professional Game Board or the absolutely useless FA Technical Control Board, which sits about as often as the Steve McClaren Appreciation Society at the England supporters club. The grassroots game needs a dictator, a pig-headed, dogmatic, troublemaker of a man who will contact the head of each county association and tell him the rules have changed starting next season and his clubs either buy in, or get out. Brooking is admirably focused on skill and has made some improvements in two years, but his reforms, like his manner, do not go far enough. He talks as if he is outside the problem, when he should be at the heart of it.
“I think there are certain rules we should get rid of now,” Brooking said. “Certain leagues that should be scrapped, too — because the way some parents behave is appalling and counterproductive, so we should set sanctions. Now, you and I might be sitting here agreeing, but a lot of people will not want that to happen. If we launch this, we have to be strong, we have to name and shame in regional newspapers, which cover grassroots football in greater depth, because that might embarrass people into changing their behaviour. Why do we even have leagues at such a young age? There are eight and nine-year-olds being told: ‘Come on, beat this lot today and we’ll be top.’ That isn’t the proper issue, particularly if they are going to get an ear-bashing if the result goes wrong. If you go to the academy at Manchester United, parents are not allowed to shout out. They are in one specific area, and if they say a word, they are not allowed to attend any more sessions.
“We look at a player like Cesc Fàbregas at Arsenal and think, why can’t we produce one like that? But what sets him apart is his brain. We have youngsters who cannot recognise a player in space, cannot see the pass, cannot make the right decision. Go to Manchester United, they will stop the play and ask the youngsters to say where the ball should go. They discuss it, they think for themselves. It is all about contact time. Manchester United have been arguing for ages that everything should be four versus four, because young players need more ball contact time. Our league youngsters get half the time with the ball than those on the Continent, our grassroots youngsters get even less. Unfortunately, unless they work in a structured club with proper training, nobody works on individual skills.
“In the early part of a youngster’s development, there should be no positions. My generation would have gone around the corner and picked up a match three versus three, four versus four and taken turns going in goal. Any skill I had I learnt with my mates. We’d come home from school, we’d meet up and play for two hours until it got dark, then wander home. You won’t let your kids do that these days. So the actual learning time has diminished. We have to find a way of replicating those games: small numbers, no pressure, nobody ranting or raving.
“I played 11 versus 11 at primary school, but I was technically better than a lot of the youngsters now. To have three extra players on the pitch all running towards you, unless you are confident enough to dribble around them, or to play a one-two with another player who is technically proficient, you are in trouble. That’s why we get so much long ball — because we can’t cope. Unless we have a ten-year campaign to change all this, we will be in trouble. If you think we haven’t qualified with this generation, if we carry on like this, wait and see what happens next.”
Brooking sounds worried. We should all be. The correct order is that outsiders issue dire warnings and the director of football development has the answers. Right now, Brooking is the Greek chorus to the doommongers, and that cannot be right. There should be an optimum number of players in each team for each age group and a standard pitch size based on indisputable scientific evidence. Beyond that, Rob and his team-mates do not require a review panel to know what should be done.
Bring the pitch boundaries in, make the goals smaller, take goal kicks from the edge of the penalty area, play in smaller teams, put greater emphasis on skill and less on power. Any child could tell you that. But are the committees steering the future at the FA as smart as a ten-year-old? Rob could answer that one, too, but he was brought up to be polite.
Blueprint for glory
1: Make pitches small enough to encourage skill and passing at all age groups
2: Decide on sensible goal sizes for all age groups
3: Take goal kicks from the edge of the penalty area
4: Play in smaller teams throughout age groups
5: Put greater emphasis on skill and less on power
6: Make sure coaches are trained to emphasise enjoyment not winning, especially at younger age groups
7: Where space allows, define an area away from the pitch for parents to watch from
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