Vision to promote excellence among young players and improve England's chances is 'suffering in a vacuum', says director

From: www.timesonline.co.uk
Exact Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article5141531.ece 
By: Brian Alexander 

Figure of frustration: Sir Trevor Brooking

Brian Alexander

When Sir Trevor Brooking uses words such as “vacuum” and phrases such as “treading water” to describe how the FA is performing, you know things are not going well. The FA's director of football development for nearly five years, Brooking - a thoroughly decent, popular and passionate man - has been trying to lead England to a new era of excellence in terms of coaching, facilities and technical ability to ensure that the national team manager has a better pool of home-grown players to select from.

Instead, the picture appears to be different. With 60 per cent of Barclays Premier League players from overseas, Brooking strikes a frustrated and forlorn figure. “We can't get the money to support our youth programmes,” he said. “We've been treading water for 2 years. There's more money in the game than ever before, but I don't see us in ten years' time having capitalised on it.”

Brooking's vision is to have a team of expert and fully trained coaches working with youngsters of all ages at a National Football Centre in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire. He wants it to be the hub for education across the football board. And he feels a keen sense of responsibility to provide access to a deep pool of knowledge and learning for all clubs, junior as well as the 92 Premier League and Football League set-ups.

“I want to have an effect with the 5-11 and 11-16 age groups,” Brooking said. “That's where the gulf is with the rest of the world. It's hugely frustrating for kids at English clubs to be told they're not good enough at 16 because of the number of overseas youngsters filling academies and centres of excellence. You once had to be among the best young players in Britain; now you have to be among the best in the world to make it here.”

So has he lost control of being able to implement his vision? “I'm not sure I ever had any control,” he said.

In a detailed interview for this evening's Football's Fame Academy programme on BBC Radio 5 Live, Brooking said: “What's happened over the last two or three years is that everyone accepted there were different levels of standards at academies and we at the FA tried through the technical control board to implement programmes. We did a report at the end of 2005 involving the Premier League, Football League and the FA to identify clubs who weren't up to scratch. We wrote to the leagues to show how we could help, but unfortunately we were told we didn't have the power to do that.

“Another review by Richard Lewis [the executive chairman of the Rugby Football League] was then instigated and that came out in the summer of 2007. A youth development group is now being set up, but for two years nobody has had responsibility for lifting standards. There are some great clubs who we should be tapping into.

“We should be soaking their knowledge up like a sponge. We want to go out as the governing body to help all those clubs and do in-service work. But there's been a vacuum. As a country we're not maximising our possibilities. We should have better depth of young English players.”

Brooking's frustration has come to a head this year as a result of the restructuring of the FA, which is divided between the national board (grass roots and amateur) and the professional game board (the Premier and Football Leagues). “We received £12million of extra funds for youth development from the new broadcasting deal, so in May of this year we organised six regional meetings with academies and centres of excellence to try to persuade the professional board to support what we were doing in the grass roots and extend it to everyone,” he said. “They didn't support us during the summer. I'm trying to move forward, but I've had to ask the chairman to try to find £2million from the central budget to keep our programmes going. I only have one 5-11 age group coach for the whole country to look after 92 clubs and one guy looking after the 12-16 age group.”

In an ideal world, Brooking envisaged having dozens of full-time coaches to nurture youngsters from the age of 5, to spread the gospel about technical ability, the use of modern technology and science. So where did the £12million of new TV money go?

“Some of the Football League share went to their trust that funds youth development in the centres of excellence, but my disagreement there is that we haven't been able to have any quality assurance of that work at the FA,” he said. “If the governing body is giving out money, we shouldn't be giving it to an outside organisation. We should have control of those FA funds. Other money went on additional prize-money for the FA Cup and, of course, some of that money ends up in first-team accounts.”

What about the top Premier League clubs? “They are bringing in kids from overseas, so it could be said that the FA is funding bringing in overseas youngsters,” Brooking said. “For me that's a farce. If we've got millions of FA money, people want us to have control of that. That's been taken out of my hands.

“Most people know that the FA can't impact on anything to do with youth development in the professional game. I have produced a document about coaching and the grassroots programmes are going well. We have to persuade our decision-makers at the FA to fund our own programmes. That is a decision for the professional game board half of the organisation.”

Brooking, 60 last month, has made a great deal of sense to a great many people throughout his playing career, at his beloved West Ham United and with England, and as a skilful administrator, as chairman of Sport England and since taking up his position at the FA in January 2004.

So why should a strategy of such simplicity but profound common sense be so difficult to implement? Are the professional clubs blocking him? “On the ground, when I speak to academy directors and coaches they have bought into what we want to do, but they also look upon us to ring-fence some of that money for spending on grass roots,” he said. “A lot of people involved in the game want the FA to have quality control.

“I've got to keep battering away. I'm the voice of technical people in football. I can carry the argument and put in my papers. I submit those to my people at the main board and the professional game board, but I don't get into the monthly meetings to find out why they don't support it.” So is he getting no support from within the FA? “That's for others to say. I believe it is a priority, but it is not my decision to get the investment on the player and coaching development side.

“If we want better English players and better coaching resources, that should be the role of the governing body. The professional game is reluctant for the FA to be the independent arbitrator. When it goes to a vote, we're outvoted.”

So what about his grand vision for producing talented home-grown players? “No, I can't do that,” Brooking said. “I wanted to put our FA investment into the 5-11 and 11-16 groups and was confident we could improve quality. I want 5-11 and 11-16 coaches to be seen as important full-time proper jobs. In my generation, when you left primary school at 11, the technical ability was there. It's not now. We want youngsters to know how to use their skill. Cesc Fàbregas at Arsenal knows how to use his ability. That's what I want for all our youngsters.”

This evening's programme focuses on the achievements of the Manchester City academy, set up ten years ago and now responsible for a production line of 26 graduates into first-team football. “The City academy director, Jim Cassell, is terrific and has an excellent reputation,” Brooking said. “Aston Villa, West Ham and Middlesbrough have spent wisely in that area, too.”

A central piece of Brooking's footballing jigsaw is the National Football Centre, which has finally got planning permission and FA approval after years of wrangling. “We're finalising costs, but it needs a little kick,” he said. “There's been a transition at the FA with the new chairman, Lord Triesman, Brian Barwick has left as chief executive and there's a new structure with internal reviews. While that's happening, we need to drive it through.”

Are the Premier League clubs cool on the idea? “Their academies and youth development are not like a Burton centre, where all the coaching is done from one hub,” he said. “We need a central font of all football knowledge. We are currently paying well over £1million hiring other facilities, which is a nonsense.”

Brian Alexander presents Sport Specials for BBC Radio 5 Live. Football's Fame Academy is on at 7pm today.