David Sheepshanks, chairman of St George's Park, is convinced England's state-of-the-art centre at Burton will in time result in improved performances
When the FA first announced plans for a new national football centre in Burton upon Trent, Spain were still classed as perennial underachievers and were seven years away from making their Euro 2008 breakthrough. When England face the world and European champions on Saturday, the overriding thought among many in the capacity Wembley crowd will be how little has changed for the home side in contrast. But the footballing lesson many expect could provide the perfect example of why more than �100m is being spent on a long delayed project in the Derbyshire countryside.
On a windswept site of natural beauty, the St George's Park chairman, David Sheepshanks, responsible for driving through the �105m centre in its latest incarnation, could not help but echo voices of the past when he cautioned that real results in terms of the improved performance of the national team were unlikely to be seen until 2020 onwards. Sheepshanks claimed the structures rapidly rising out of the mud remained "on schedule and on budget" to open in late summer 2012, though talk of throwing open the doors in time for the Olympics was quietly dropped some time ago.
The FA's track record in major infrastructure projects does not inspire confidence but Sheepshanks says St George's Park will not go the way of Wembley. Working with companies such as Umbro, BT, Hilton hotels and a shortly to be announced medical partner, he says the business plan, which relies on the hotels staying busy and a steady stream of corporate clients signing up to the various services on offer, stacks up and will be self-sustaining within the first five years of operation.
Since March, when the first brick was laid, work has progressed apace. It is now possible to walk the corridors of the two hotels at the heart of the site, rather than staring at them on plans. Totalling 238 rooms, they comprise the Hilton that will house monied corporate clients and the England senior team when they come to stay, potentially arriving via the nearby Tatenhall airfield and their own private entrance, and a more affordable wing that will cater for those attending coaching courses.
The 120ft by 80ft indoor training pitch is also close to completion, flanked on one side by glass walls and on the other by a balcony that overlooks the adjacent replica of the Wembley pitch on which the senior side will train, one of 11 outdoor pitches. It is overlooked by what will be a state-of-the-art gym, one of five on site that alongside specialist hydrotherapy and rehabilitation facilities Sheepshanks hopes will rank the medical facilities as among the best in the world.
Back in 2001, the national football centre was envisaged as England's answer to Clairefontaine, the centralised academy that gave birth to France's golden generation of players and coaches. Now, following a decade of painful power struggles and financial challenges for the FA, it has been designed as a home for England squads at all levels, a coaching centre that will deliver 50,000 courses a year and hopes to change the culture of English football and a hub for the best in sports science and medicine.
With Barcelona's La Mas�a academy seen as the blueprint for producing technically accomplished youngsters, and Premier League clubs inevitably keen to retain control of their players, they have signed up to a model in which the FA "coaches the coaches" and they develop the talent. The eventual opening of St George's Park will coincide with the implementation of the elite player performance plan, a wide-ranging and controversial shakeup of the academy system.
The FA's director of football development, Sir Trevor Brooking, has long talked about the need for a culture change in the way we coach our footballers and believes progress is finally being made. He points to the generation of players coming through the younger age groups as evidence that better close control and an appreciation of technique over brawn is being introduced earlier, at least at elite level. A new coaching manual is designed to provide the theory, St George's Park is supposed to provide the coaches to put it into practice.
The problem is that an increasingly pessimistic English public have heard it all before. While accepting that England's players would not necessarily benefit until shortly before the 2022 World Cup, Sheepshanks says there would at least be a more immediate effect in underlining the seriousness with which the English game is now tackling its deficiencies.
"We have a long-term vision that every footballer who wants to be coached by a qualified coach can have access to one," he says. "At the moment we have 103,000 qualified coaches and by 2018 we would like to have 250,000 qualified coaches. 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 grassroots game."
Other courses on offer might also prove popular with those who have studied the deficiencies of the English game over the past decade. "Courses could range from introductory courses in football finance to leadership training to personal coaching, educating the individual not just the football player," he says.
Sheepshanks, who has travelled and consulted widely, believes that St George's Park represents a new dawn. He says the library in which budding young coaches will immerse themselves in theory and the 12 pitches on which they will translate that into practice should ultimately mean that never again will England be forced to look overseas for a manager. "Football has been [perceived as being] insular but there's a lot to be gained by sharing best practice in areas like coach education, like sports medicine and sports science and like leadership training," he adds.
Away from the grand project of St George's Park, at least as important for the future chances of the national team are the ongoing tripartite conversations over a response to the challenges laid down by a recent parliamentary select committee report. If you believe Sheepshanks, St George's Park has already had an effect in bringing the often warring tribes together. "I know it sounds extraordinary that everybody is together on something but St George's Park has already had a cohesive effect on the game in how it operates, and I believe it will be an even stronger binding factor in the game," he claims. "I hope it could prove a new era for the game. This is for English football."
If the Premier League, Football League and the FA are to ensure the next decade doesn't merely repeat the mistakes of the previous one they will have to prove those words can be translated into action.
In a copse on one corner of the site, Sheepshanks said there were plans to create a small memorial to the last remnants of the Bass family estate on which St George's Park has been built. A more lasting achievement might be to create a system that avoids the need for the biannual round of bloodletting and disappointment that habitually turns England fans to drink.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/nov/08/fa-100m-facility-england-burton
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