Ideas for football reforms

[Stifler]

Ok, here I go, feel free to shoot me down but I've had a few ideas of how football in this country can be improved.

 

1. Regional football centres:

 

Like what France introduced before the 98 world cup, and an extension of St George's Park. Lets create regional football centre's all across the UK that focus not only on creating footballers, but referee's, coaches, managers etc.

 

In the centre's scouts will identify young players. At high school age (and middle school age in the 3 tier system areas) the kids will be educated there with fully trained teachers as well as spending time with professional coaches. The academies would be available to kids on a boarding, half board, or general school plan condition, depending on what the child wants and what is more appropriate. The aim would be to develop players, not all will make to be a Premier League player, but they could be trained to do well in the lower leagues. Players will also be educated well (to the standard of A-levels or higher) so they can help build a career for when they leave football, those identified as being talented as manger, each, referee etc will also be given the opportunity to pursue these options instead of being a footballer.

 

Any players developed by these academies will be owned by these academies for their entire footballing career. Players will be loaned out to clubs, with preference being given to clubs in the same region as the players academy. Players will only be loaned out to clubs for a maximum of 1 season, clubs can opt to increase the wages of the loaned player (with a % of so much over a certain amount of wages going back to the academy). If the player is not given enough footballing time (particularly when they are young) then the academy has the right to block a move back to that for the player and other players, they also reserve the right to end any loans. Clubs who do use the loaned player well will be given priority over loaning them again. This will help prevent clubs from hoarding young players and encourage clubs to utilise their own academies more efficiently.

 

2. Different days for different leagues/TV schedule:

Non-league games should be played early or late on Saturdays. This would mean that the football league can retain the traditional 3pm Saturday KO times but fans have the ability to see both their local non-league team play, and their local league team play. The football league would have a total of 3 matches per week on TV as well, with 1 games from every league being played once a week, with every club getting a similar amount of coverage.

 

Sundays will be Premier League day with 3pm KO times. This will make it better for teams in Europe, particularly those play in the Europa League. Non-league games that couldn't be played on the Saturday fill up early and late KO times on a Sunday as well, so again people can attend both non-league and Premier League games.

All Premier League games will be available live on TV, providing the game has sold out, clubs will have the ability to buy their unsold tickets but must provide them to local communities (universities, schools, charities etc) free of charge. Additionally all clubs must provide 5% of tickets to local communities free of charge, with the remaining tickets sold at affordable prices, the increase of TV revenue gained by showing all games will offset the financial hit clubs may take. Additionally clubs must sell away tickets according to a price seen reasonable for the away club, so this means teams based in London can no longer sell away tickets to supporters based outside of London at London prices. I.E. If Arsenal played Newcastle at home, they couldn't charge Newcastle fans tickets that cost £60 which is the average for London based clubs, but must sell for what Newcastle fans would pay on average in homes games, however if Arsenal played Spurs who also charge about £60 then they can charge £60 to Spurs fans. The affordable prices rule should mean more affordable and constant prices in anyway, but this helps bring the balance between affordable prices in different areas to more consistent levels.

 

Ok then shoot me down. feel free to add your own ideas.

[Kaizero]

A fucking period in the title...

 

[Altamullan]

I really like the idea of Academies/Centres of Excellence not being owned by specific clubs. The current system is not working. The book Every Boy's Dream concludes from tracking elite under 9s,  that from 10,000 boys at Academies, 100 sign professional forms at 18 (1%); from this 100, only 17 were still a professional footballer,  anywhere, at 21. So 0.17% of the best 9 year olds in the country get what they are promised, a career in the game. Something seriously wrong with that. Particularly given how frighteningly good these kids are.

 

Taking football development away from clubs, shifts the aims to being more focused on bringing the best out of the child, rather than doing the best thing for the club. We could use the national cycling set-up as a model. Kids could go through a whole range of sports science tests to match their attributes to the best position (or even sport), selecting for physiological and psychological strengths which can't easily be trained rather than just on ability at 6,7,8,9 etc. which is probably more to do with how much they have played the sport, rather than how good they could be at the sport.

 

I can't help thinking some of the best potential footballers (insert any sport/activity) we could have had, never played the game enough to get hooked on it themselves, or to realise their potential. We basically need a tighter net to prevent the obviously talented being eaten-up and spat out by the heartless corporate machine of football clubs, and to catch the outstanding potential of the kids who are not yet obviously talented.

[mrmojorisin75]

I'd like to hear someone come up with an idea to fix the chronic shortage of even competent English managers the game. While I agree with a root and branch reform for developing kids (that'll never happen) if you have dogshit telling them what to do it's worthless.

 

There was enough talent in the England squad, Hodgson just got absolutely everything wrong.

[Guest chopey]

I like the idea of regional football centers but the England team has nothing to do with how we train the kids at academys, Wales are basically England mark 2 and they are doing great because they are a team with a team mentality

[Guest]

Shearer was spot on at half time regarding that.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

I'd like to hear someone come up with an idea to fix the chronic shortage of even competent English managers the game. While I agree with a root and branch reform for developing kids (that'll never happen) if you have dogshit telling them what to do it's worthless.

 

There was enough talent in the England squad, Hodgson just got absolutely everything wrong.

 

The reason why we have poor coaches and managers is because of the archaic mind-set of the typical British bloke interested in footy, be it on the stands, in the pub, on the touchline as a father watching his kid play, a coach managing a kids' team or an actual Premier League footballer like say Jack Colback.

 

Lets start right at the very bottom, at grassroots level, however, as that's where the real problems stem from.

 

Dave from Newcastle wants to get his lad into football so he signs him up to some kids' club. Dave shouts instructions from the touchline for his son to work hard, get stuck in, be brave and to get rid if in danger etc. Dave's kid isn't the best of players but he never stops running and is a favorite of the coach and other parents for his never give up attitude.

 

Eventually, Dave's son's coach is sick of the parents winging how their kids aren't getting enough games, how they keep getting beat etc. so he jacks it in.

 

Dave takes over. Hard work, lots of running, passion, bravery etc. are the staple of his coaching.

 

His team consists mainly of big kids and quick kids, hard workers who never stop running. They win their league and a cup. Years later one of the players from that team makes it all the way and signs for Newcastle United, his home town team.

 

He's a grafter, never stops running and loves to tackle. Brave as they come. The fans love him.

 

After his nothing spectacular career ends this player goes into management. Hard work, lots of running, passion, bravery etc. are the staple of his coaching.

 

He fails spectacularly and gets sacked, replaced by a foreign coach. He yo yos around the divisions managing various club with no real success other than a promotion from league 2 and a League Cup quarter final place.

 

That is British football across the spectrum.

 

Hard work, running, bravery, passion and never giving up are the pillars of the British game.

 

The very fact a good portion of Newcastle fans would have Colback in their team for his passion, his Geordie roots and because he runs around a bit is a sad indictment of the state of our game. He shouldn't be anywhere neat a Premier League first team because he is awful.

 

Skill, technical ability, flair and things like show boating which kids just love to do or would love to are considered way down the lists of things desired in a player and a team, from the average British bloke interested in footy.

 

Abroad its totally different. Kids are encouraged to express themselves, kids' teams are not full of big kids with pace, the emphasis is on technical ability, skill and good football.

 

The foreign fan, say a Real Madrid fan, will happily boo their team even if they have thrashed someone, if they haven't performed well. They expect a hell of a lot more from their players and team than mere working hard, running around etc.

 

Of course its not like that with every fan and in every country but the way the typical British bloke interested in footy sees the game is totally different and archaic to our foreign counterparts.

 

And its these blokes who get their hands on kids and strangle the very fucking fun and ability out of them in order to produce a hard working, non stop running, brave, tough tackling robot like kid. Someone like Colback for example who ironically is regarded in the English game as a gifted player, the ginger Pirlo...

 

Look at Rafa to McCLaren, Pardew et al, the latter may as well be fucking aliens to just how different they are yet its the same sport.

 

We are 20 years behind, maybe even more and we will never produce a great national side regardless of how many top players we may produce because when they enter that pitch as 11 Englishmen their mind-set reverts back to how they have been brought up, how they learned to play. This crosses over to when they get into management and coaching.

 

Look at English players when they commentate on games or talk about a match and performances. Hard work, graft, luck, running, are all constant words used.

 

Me, I'd abolish league structures in kids' football from schools to junior football clubs. No leagues, no cups. Just let the kids play so there is no emphasis on winning or losing. I'd make it law that a coach and parents cannot influence things from the touchline, once the game starts they only cheer. No coaching, no influencing their kid and how they play or doesn't, just let them play.

 

It used to piss me off no end when my nephew's coach would shout at him for dribbling out of the box or taking on too many players. One day he dribbled all the way out of his own box and ran all the way up the pitch and scored. The coach shouted him over to say well done, but don't do it again. Needless to say we moved him away from that environment.

 

Arsene Wenger said the best coach is the game itself.

 

England should hand that man the keys to our national game and give him carte blanche to oversee everything.

[HaydnNUFC]

Agreed. I remember watching a video on YouTube, a halftime team talk rant by John Sitton when manager at Leyton Orient in '94 I think. One of the things he says is

 

"Fuck the technical shit, its down to this" (points at his heart)

 

Which just encapsulates the above post.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

It is getting better, but grassroots football in this country still sucks big time.

 

The FA's coaching syllabus, although well thought out and pretty well structured, isn't helping coaches to coach kids' better or helping us produce better players. Not when the mindset is still the same. Passion, hard work, fight, graft etc.

 

Some of the drills for example are just plain redundant.

 

Kids under 10 shouldn't receive any kind of formal coaching at all, they should simply be encouraged to practice dribbling, control, shooting and passing. No real drills needed.

 

I used to coach by the way, there are some good minds at youth level, but by the time the sunday game kicks of the parents go mad on the touchline and all good ideas go out of the window when some plank of a bloke is yelling at his kid to put a tackle in or lump it long to the big kid up front. Winning is a huge issue in our kids' game, its the be all and end all it would seem.

 

Kids at say 7 years old shouldn't go into a sunday game with other 7 year olds with the mindset of "we must win", they should be going into the game hoping to score an overhead kick, dribble past 5 players and do some showboating or something.

 

Our two best ever managers in my mind have been Keegan and Sir Bobby. They understood the importance of working hard and showing passion and fight, but never at the expense of skill, expression, technique and entertainment.

 

Kids at 7 should not be coached especially not to the extent where they are being coached by a criteria designed for adults or by professionals for professionals which most of the FA coaching coaches are about.

 

A 7 year old needs just a ball at his or her feet and let them be, guide them, encourage them. Don't try and coach them. How can you coach a kid to dribble a ball? Is there a right or wrong way to dribble!? Run around some cones kid, that's what Giggs used to do...

[mozy]

We didn't fail at the Euro's because the players aren't technically good enough, we failed because we had no tactical plan of how to play. The skills we lack are mental ones and it needs strong management to develop a system that the players believe in. Wenger is not the answer, not tactically astute enough for an England international team. Our players need to be told what to do, he won't do it.

 

 

 

 

[Guest Howaythetoon]

We didn't fail at the Euro's because the players aren't technically good enough, we failed because we had no tactical plan of how to play. The skills we lack are mental ones and it needs strong management to develop a system that the players believe in. Wenger is not the answer, not tactically astute enough for an England international team. Our players need to be told what to do, he won't do it.

 

 

 

 

 

It all ties in though. The players are more than good enough as individuals - clearly. But put 11 Englishmen on the same pitch together and they struggle and revert to a pub team if you like.

 

Individually, placed in their respective club sides with a multi-cultural team heavily influenced by foreign input from managers to coaches to medical staff to even agents and these English players can perform because they adapt and become part of a bigger and different mind-set.

 

We do need a system, clear tactics and clear management. Roy was too indecisive, too wishy washy and too old fashioned in many ways and the players simply didn't believe or were not convinced.

 

We also lack mental skills as well, agreed. What I strongly disagree with, however, is that our players need told what to do. They have been told what to do all their lives and it inhibits them. They need to be freed and allowed to lose their inhibitions.

 

I'm not advocating Wenger as manager by the way, but as someone to oversee the whole of our game and to help change it.

 

The most striking thing about this England team is the lack of team spirit, there is none basically. Without that, regardless of skills and ability, they will never go far. They play as strangers.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

I'd go for Hoddle personally. The last time England ever looked like it was capable of doing something was under him. Tactically, mentally and just the whole way we were set up. We were very unlucky against Argentina in '98, had we seen out that game I think we would have went very far and were capable of winning it for sure.

 

Hoddle himself said something that has always struck a chord with me and is still in evidence today, and he said this a decade ago! England play in straight lines on and off the ball and as a result are easy to play against on and off the ball. Playing in straight lines makes it difficult to win games and key contests within the game and makes it almost inevitable that to win will depend on individual brilliance or a top player showing up. That rarely happens in international football where it is more about the team and the dynamics of the team given how short a tournament is.

 

When the opposition are sat deep and have 10 men behind the ball and an England player is on the ball he does one or two things, looks long, passes it backwards or holds onto it too long. The movement and awareness is not at the level of others and that's something we have struggled with.

 

I've never been concerned about lack of possession, you can pass the ball backwards, sideways and short ways and dominate the possession stats but you're not going to create chances much less score goals. We usually dominate possession or have more of the ball which seems to have fooled many into thinking we have cracked it.

 

Its about movement, awareness and having the wherewithall to do something when on the ball to that effect. Rooney at say Man Utd would look up and see Mata or RVP or whoever. for England he looks up and he sees Sterling wide left standing still with his hand up or Kane with 2 players on him holding his hand out for the ball to feet.

 

Players have to keep moving, 2-3 touches, short and crisp passing.

 

Its very predictable how England play and easy to play against. Iceland had tougher games during qualification.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Sorry for hijacking your thread btw Stiffler!

[Crumpy Gunt]

My lad plays U11'next season. He's played since U7's. What I find at this age is that kids will / are being left behind.

 

Two things spring to mind.

 

1 - Trials.

For three years my lad has played he's went to trials every season. Anyone kid can go to these trials and try out for his / her age group. What I see is virtually a closed shop. You look and think 'he looks a decent player, he would certainly improve our team. He's better than some, if not most, of our team"

You then start the next season with the exact same team - and the other teams at this level look exactly the same. In fact if you turned up for a trial and didn't already have a team you had very slim or no chance regardless.

My lad trialled for Wallsend. They are dropping from 3 x 7 a side teams to 2 x 9 a side teams. Half a dozen of their own are getting chopped and no kid outside will get a chance. Waste of time going (and my lad was never going to be good enough, but he wanted to try) Parents on the sidelines where only worried about whether their kid would make the cut!

 

2 - Cost.

 

I'd say £15 to £25 a month. x 8 months.

 

A lot of parents just simply couldn't afford it. Single mother with 2/3 kids wont have that spare cash. Good players will be left to rot at the age of 7 and maybe not show their potential til their (free) school team picks them.

When we say the riches need to be spread to grass roots this is were it needs to start.

[mozy]

We didn't fail at the Euro's because the players aren't technically good enough, we failed because we had no tactical plan of how to play. The skills we lack are mental ones and it needs strong management to develop a system that the players believe in. Wenger is not the answer, not tactically astute enough for an England international team. Our players need to be told what to do, he won't do it.

 

 

 

 

 

We also lack mental skills as well, agreed. What I strongly disagree with, however, is that our players need told what to do. They have been told what to do all their lives and it inhibits them. They need to be freed and allowed to lose their inhibitions.

 

I'm not advocating Wenger as manager by the way, but as someone to oversee the whole of our game and to help change it.

 

The most striking thing about this England team is the lack of team spirit, there is none basically. Without that, regardless of skills and ability, they will never go far. They play as strangers.

 

When I said they need to be told what to do, I mean tactically. They are all clearly too stupid to understand what to do on the pitch themselves, so if they are going to be successful, that means they need to be told how to do it.

 

I actually think Roy tried to let the team freelance a bit and look how that turned out. Total mess.