The Debate: Can the FA be trusted with children's football?

Sir Trevor Brooking believes that children are the future. Indeed, he never stops banging on about the significance of teaching skills to the 5 to 11-year-old age group. Discussing issues including children playing on ridiculously oversized adult pitches this season, he talked proudly of the seven-a-side tournament for district teams run by the English Schools FA (ESFA), with smaller dimensions and smaller goals, ending with a final tournament at Wembley.

I went to the regional finals for the South East area on Saturday and somebody at the ESFA is not paying attention. It was a seven-a-side tournament but, despite the availability of many smaller pitches, took place on a nine-a-side pitch (80 yards by 50 yards). Even so, seven-a-side rules remained, so there was no offside, meaning that the tallest and most athletic teams could bang it long and play a sprinter as centre forward or man-mark the goalkeeper, as some did.

There were nine districts present from across southern England, but the identity of the winners was known to anyone with a clue about football before a ball had been kicked. The ESFA should have saved time, lined up the children against a wall in the car park and presented the trophy to the biggest team. The way the tournament was set out, the most imposing athletes could not fail. And the winners were, as predicted, huge boys. Many were a head taller than their opponents. In one game they scored seven goals in 14 minutes against the best district team in Bedfordshire.

Now this team had some lovely players, too. Maybe they would have won any form of competition. Yet what was remarkable was that the ESFA found time to create rules about underpants (rule 9, visible undergarments must not be worn), but not to contemplate that playing without offside on an 80-yard pitch corrupts the contest. Seven-a-side games should be on seven-a-side pitches — that is why they were invented.

Brooking talks a good game, but the ESFA does not play it. Yet, as the FA technical director, the buck stops with him. He could end this charade with one wave of the pen but chooses not to. There is no point paying Fabio Capello £6 million a year to heal the ills of English football. The future could be seen on Saturday. It’s pants.

What do you think? Can the FA be trusted with children’s football? Have your say: e-mail thegame@thetimes.co.uk

Comments

[Alex Norton]

Simon Clifford is the answer.
The FA are a useless governing body riddled with conflicts of interests. We are going to be in the same position ten years down the line for sure.
Simon Clifford is innovative, he cares very strongly about youth development. He is a big character and a definite leader. He would give youth football a massive kick up the backside and most probably get it in shape. I am on the verge of setting up a campaign to draw attention to this as I am so fed up at the lack of progress.
If you want to know more about him look at these sites.
Brazilian Soccer Schools
http://www.icfds.com/content2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=324&Itemid=2
A Brazilian Soccer schools player
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nm1c0BrguY

[John]

So, judging from the earlier comments, all the under 18s should be playing and practising with a punctured worn-out mini-football in the sand, Copacabana style, so that we can emulate the Brazilian national side! Well, perhaps that's not such a bad idea -- our footballers are great at passing and tackling, but lacking at ball control -- can the ESFA pay for the trips, please?

[Jim]

As a current children's coach I'm increasingly unhappy with the FA. 11 aside at U11 is simply too early. Regulations on pitch and goal size are routinely ignored and the endless paperwork and useless meetings with unqualified, unskilled and unsympathetic FA administrators put off many former players and parents from getting involved. For a multi million pound industry the whole thing looks and feels totally amateurish.

I liked Brooking as a player but he is out of his depth here. I recall that one of his first decisions was to instruct the Football Foundation not to contribute to multi sport facilities like changing rooms and showers. Though I believe this has since been overturned, at the time it precluded the upgrading of facilities at numerous small clubs where such facilities are shared between sports and seasons. This was dreadfully short sighted.

If he wanted to make a real difference the priorities at grass roots level are: indoor facilities that enable us to train and coach skills and small sided games outside of work hours (especially during the winter months); the targeting, training and mentoring of junior coaches (particularly amongst current players over 30) and upgrading the skills within the management and administration of the FA to make it less punitive and more supportive of those of us who give our time for nothing. One example says much: tomorrow night I am required to attend a seminar at Cambridgeshire FA starting at 6:30pm. To attend I will have to drive 60 miles direct from a 9 hour work day through rush hour traffic and to forego my dinner. Attendance is compulsory or my club will be fined £50. No business would treat its customers like this and expect to stay in business.

[Mr Zidane]

We definitely lack technical skills. To much emphasis on power play.

[Den Gordon]

There are so many comments here that ring true!! U-14 and younger players are not mini-adults they are kids! With that goes coaching knowledge of child development stages and what they are capable of. Small-sided games starting with U-6 playing 3 v 3 no goalkeepers is the basic triangle foundation - don't expect too much passing but you can expect a good instep kick (they can't physioloically do a push pass)and good dribbling by the end of the season. Too much emphasis is put on the scores as measured by the goals and not by other successes. American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) www.soccer.org has the right idea with coach education to match.

One person mentioned ball control that came about by playing on smaller fields. That's one way to manage the difficulty of an exercise. Don't leave kids out either there are always late bloomers.

It's a fantastic game! Let's make sure it does not falter in England.

[sarah]

More warm yet empty words from the FA. It's hopeless. Trevor Brooking has all the leadership skills of a blancmange.

[C Savvas]

I've just turned 24. When at Primary School the school pitch was renowned in borough for how small it was. Because of its size we had no choice but to play football. Anything other than keeping the ball on the deck would've meant it flying out of play every time it was hoofed up field.

Because of this the whole team I played in went on to not only be extremely good footballers, but we all have a decent touch, good technique and a much better understanding of the game than most others that we grew up with.

We also trained indoors on a 5-a-side pitch, no overhead height, no more than two touch. pass and move football.

The way we were trained is completely different to others and the benefits are still very clear to see now.

And the proof that it worked...we didn't lose at home in 3 years (we were all pretty tiny by the way) and won the league three years in a row.

Lets stop talking about it and start applying it...it'll make the difference very quickly.

[Mark]

I thought this sort of thing was a thing of the past. I've seen my nephew play six a side football on a siutable sized pitch at the age of 11/12 and the quality was excellent, plenty of one on one situations with other kids positioning for shorts passes etc.

It really isn't hard to sort out.

[andy]

the fa are a bunch of old men who care about nothing but there own self importance.
and that goes for trvor brooking too.

he wanted an english manager,ha there are none.

he is as daft as the rest of them,get the germans in at least even with a bad team, the players dont walk about like they are lords of the manour.

it is sad when we cant produce a world class english coach.

[Martin Duffield]

Some years ago the better players were taken out of the schools' system when the FA's Programme for Excellence was introduced - The idea being that the Centres of Excellence and the Academies would have access to the better players from the age of 7 - what has happened? - the clubs are taking access to non-english players and many of our home talent are being used as fill-ins by the clubs. At the time the Excellence Programme was instigated would it not have been better to have FA controlled Regional Centres and a National Centre for the most talented players- unfortunately the FA are no longer in control - the Clubs rule the roost - the appropriate size of pitches is a problem and on many occasions the most appropriate sized pitch is not available for the age group of the young players- a small sized pitch does not bring income for the local authority or school! - a lot more work to be done in terms of facilities, education and what is being done with our young talent by the professional clubs and no doubt the criticisms will continue !

[Graham]

In short the answer must be no! It seems to me that we been talking about the relatively poor skill levels that our kids achieve for many years, remember when Howard Wilkinson was made technical director how many years ago was that? yet nothing seems to have changed.
I too was at the ESFA tournament on Saturday and along we some other Dads was disappointed to realise that our kids were going to be playing 7-a-side on the larger pitches rather than on the more appropriate smaller pitches that were also there. Having 2 boys who both play football I've spent many a Saturday and Sunday morning on the touchline and am still bewildered as to who decides that at the age of 10 kids should move from the smaller 7-a-side game/pitches, where they've just about got the hang of passing to each other, to the much larger pitches and 11-a-side (offside etc.), what happens at that age that makes them able to cope with this transition? Having seen both my boys go through this now it defintely favours the bigger stronger kids with the skill factor, that was just about kicking in at 7-a-side being completely squashed in favour of the kick and chase! and even then the boy that does get there first is so knackered, having run the length of what is almost a full sized pitch, he doesn't have the energy to shoot!
My youngest plays in goal and my particular gripe (and this must be providing someone somewhere with endless amusement)is when a 10 year old is expected to go from mini league goals to almost full size goals, it's ridiculous and does their confidence no good at all.
Something must be done or our next 'golden generation' will be equal failures to the current one.

PS One other thing I would like to draw attention to at the ESFA tournament was there was no St John's Ambulancce or first aid facility of any kind. My son took a blow to the head while playing in goal and whilst not knocked out was extremely groggy and after being told that the first aider had gone home ill! I had to walk to the nearest hospital to get him checked out. With over 100 kids at the tournament surely this was reckless to say the least, especially for a Schools event.

[Norman]

In Germany the kids are not allowed to
play on a full size pitch until they reach `C´youth level which is then
12-14 year olds.
Just watching the ´F´youth (under 6)
thoroughly enjoying themselves be it
outdoor 7 a side during the season or
indoor 5 a side tournaments almost every weekend during the winter break is a sight to behold.
The organisation is simply superb.

[gaz]

Trevor is, by all accounts, a nice man. Not a clever man, not a talented man. is he qualified for the job? evidently not.

[Dan]

Why not let the FA deal with it? Its not like they've made a cock-up of everything else they turn their hands to. Oh, hang on a minute...

[joshua]

England have a great set of footballers. Sven got england to every tournament, whats the fuss about?

Only when we hired a hopeless english coach did we struggle, hence the problem is the coaches and not the players.

Lampard, terry, cole, gerrard, rooney, rio all play at top teams who do our coaches coach?

Play 5 v 5 futsal up to 15 then play normal football.

[bob macdonald]

les howie is in charge of youth development, the next platform for our youngest players, maybe it would be pertinent to ask his views on the developmental process of elite players with particular reference to the adhoc situation regarding open age groups and youth team football.

[Faithy]

Get the kids playing indoor futsal.

That's what the Brazilians do and that's why they produce the best players.

11 a-side is boring for the kids. Even more so when it's p***ing down and blowing a gale.

The kids in England only play 11 a-side to satisfy the coaches, parents and PE teacher's twisted football fantasies.

[Bryan Ingleby]

Unless my memory is failing, Trevor Brooking has been talking the talk since he was appointed. But as Mr Samuel says, nothing seems to have changed.

Time to stop the talking and bring back Howard Wilkinson!

[Adam Michie]

Having been a former Trevor Brooking Soccer School attendee on a number of occasions (the highlight of my summer as a lad!), I have seen first hand, the methods Sir Trevor (and he is a hell of a nice bloke) adheres to. Small pitches, small teams. The skilful and technically gifted shone through every time. If these were set up all over the country on a permanent basis, it'd make a hell of a difference!

[Martin]

My son is 7 and plays regularly for his under 8's team. It is embarrasing how many times parents and coaches running these teams he plays against come out with comments like "put it in the corner" "throw it up the line, they can't score from there" "get rid of it" etc.. etc.. I know a lot of these coaches give up their own time and arguably there might be a team in certain areas without them but there isn't any fun or enjoyment, the children are taught fear of losing at a very early age. It's very sad.

[Frank Ford]

The FA has presided over an era where 2/3 of the players in the Premier league cannot play for England and 2 of the last three coaches have been from overseas.And if the last English coach McClaren is the pinnacle of FA coach education god help us.

By the FA own admission, our players are technically inferior. What do they do-they play lip service to small-sided games, and less competition at an early age while their thousands of coaches and ex-pros go out and coach the FA way. This 7 a side story tells it all. The FA have a vested interest and cannot and will not say that they have got it wrong. Kids playing on full size pitches is cretinous. Allowing big kids to bully little kids in open spaces serves no purpose at all. Let kids play in an environment that allows them to fail without coaches screaming 'shape' or parents telling their kids they are useless.

Let the FA do this-you are dreaming. Look at the models for young kids-top players swearing at refs and monosyllabic ex pros on TV stating the bindingly obvious to us. If you really want to develop kids, don't let FA coaches near them! Let kids play and let them surprise you when they start to solve problems naturally and in their own time. Sounds very touchy feely but it works! And it is standard practice in the coaching world in some places.

[Bill]

In a word no. The FA make such a mess of it Brooking would be better off taking Pink Floyd's advice. Watch a bunch of kids with a football left to their own devices and you'll see them split up into small teams, mark out a truncated pitch and play with one very narrow goal and no keeper. They'll be hardly any running about or passing. They will do exactly what they should be doing at their age - having a laugh, playing essentially as individuals, emulating the likes of Ronaldo; Fabregas, Rooney et al. Then along come the parents and the man from the FA with their plan to re-enact Wimbledon versus Sheff United from the dark days and any kid not freakishly tall or muscular for his age might as well bugger off home.

[benidict]

Trevor Brooking, nice man, from all accounts, never meet him , cant say different, but if this is his department why was he not at the regional finals, seeing that the things he's hoping for are just not brushed under the carpet, top job's aren't just for shaking hand with top people and fine word's, sometimes the stick has to come out

[nick]

It is high time the F.A. moved into the 20th century (I think the 21st would be a bridge too far) and appointed some serious heavyweight talent to overhaul the whole thing.

Perhaps Sir Alan Sugar could be persuaded away from his career as a TV game show host his punchline might get seriously overworked though!