The FA Blueprint

The FA launched its Charter for Quality 11 years ago, allowing professional clubs to recruit children aged eight and over into their academies. However, a generation of talent passed through the system with coaches who arguably lacked the expertise to instruct them properly.

After consultation with players and organisations, a new four year National Game Strategy was unveiled in March 2008. This was built on four key goals: to grow and retain participation; to raise standards and address abusive behaviour; to develop better players; and to run the game effectively. A series of courses was developed to educate coaches to teach three age groups – five to 11s, 12 to 16s, and 17 to 21s. Virtually two years to the day since the inception of the FA’s strategy, the latest findings appear positive. Overall participation is up by 1,167 teams, while the numbers of men playing 11 a side football is up for the first time in many years. That means more teenagers are being persuaded to stay in the sport after the age of 16.

Elsewhere, women’s football continues to be the fastest growing sport in Britain, with a seven per cent rise in the youth game, while the total number of qualified referees has risen by nine per cent to 25,502. However, the FA has also admitted the majority of facilities remain ‘poor and in some cases awful’.

Hackney Marshes, Europe’s largest expanse of playing fields, used by about 1,500 players every Sunday, is one area that has remained untouched. The marshes are part of a £10million makeover for the 2012 Olympics. But the plans have been criticised by teams who claim the best pitches will become a temporary car park, leaving them without somewhere to play for up to three years. Clubs using similar inner-city expanses across the country cannot even begin to think of boasting that sort of investment, with or without a catch.

In Focus

The English FA was formed in 1871, making it the oldest national football association in the world.

Still Paying the Penalty for Neglect

As the Football Foundation celebrates ten years of investment in England's future stars, things are from perfect:

England’s public football facilities are still severely lagging behind its European rivals despite a decade of multimillion-pound investment. In 2000 the Premier League pledged five per cent of its annual domestic TV rights deal to pay for better community facilities. Matched by handouts from the FA and the government, the Football Foundation was set up to distribute the money – but ten years on the spending has only scratched the surface.

‘Our community sports facilities have suffered decades of major underinvestment, which has left us behind our European neighbours,’ says the foundation’s Rory Carroll. ‘In France, Germany or Holland it is a legal requirement for local authorities to provide and maintain high-quality sports sites. There is no such obligation here so when council budgets are squeezed, sadly the first thing to go often tends to be community sport.’

Birmingham and Manchester remain among the poorest areas, while London carries 16 per cent of the country’s population but just three per cent of its football facilities. Critics of the £9.3billion Olympic budget suggest the money would have been better spent on overhauling the country’s sporting infrastructure.

‘There is much more work to be done,’ admits Carroll. ‘While we are delighted with the achievements of the first ten years, we look forward to the next ten years of enabling more people play sport.’