Trevor Brooking has confirmed that the FA is on course to provide Fabio Capello, the England manager, with a training base at Burton upon Trent by 2010.

The FA director of football development said that talks with funding partners, planners and designers are progressing with a view to restarting work on the National Football Centre (NFC) in Staffordshire by the end of this year.

The principle to go ahead with the £50 million centre was rubber-stamped by the FA Board in December and Brooking emphasised yesterday that retaining the 350-acre site at Byrkley Lodge, where work started in 2003 before the project was moth-balled as Wembley costs spiralled, would minimise the wait.

The NFC would provide the FA with a base to house the departments for medical and exercise science, coaching, video analysis and education, as well using it as a training and preparation base for England teams. The England senior team would use it as their training base before away games.

Brooking, speaking at the Grass Roots Football Live launch at the NEC in Birmingham, said that he wanted funding partners, planners and designers “in a row” within three months. “If we can firm up our agreements, [the present] site would happen quicker than anywhere else,” he said. “If it’s good news, by spring or the early summer, we should look to kick on as quickly as possible.”

It has been envisaged that the project – linked to a hotel and conference facility – would take between 18 and 24 months to complete.

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