As the FA launched its £200 million blitz on the grass roots of football
yesterday, Lord Triesman made his own emphatic statement on the sport’s
future. The FA’s new, and first, independent chairman made it clear that he
expects the leading professional clubs, managers and players to buy into the
governing body’s vision of the way ahead.
Only seven weeks into the job, Triesman has been quick to make his mark.
However, he does not believe that the FA, after the presentation of its
radical National Game Strategy at its headquarters in Soho Square, Central
London, should have to go it alone in its efforts to revamp football at its
lowest levels.
With a roaming brief, Triesman, a former Foreign Office minister and general
secretary of the Labour Party, and a highly skilled diplomat, is planning
discussions with the Professional Footballers’ Association and League
Managers Association. He will also meet the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson and
Arsène Wenger, the senior managers in the Barclays Premier League.
It is unlikely that Triesman will take no for an answer. “I’ve had other jobs
and held discussions with people who were very strong-willed,” he said,
“people around the room who held phenomenal power and authority, and some of
them have been persuaded that there is a bigger good at stake and that we
can arrive at it. “
"The FA is not going to be subordinate to clubs while I am chairman. I can’t
and I won’t work that way and I don’t really think they [the clubs] would
want me to, either. It’s not a war. The FA has always had an historic role
in and focus on the interest of our sport. That’s a heritage and an
obligation for me.”
The National Game Strategy, which will run until 2012, will oversee the
improvement of the sport at its most local level. Chief among its concerns –
after the views of more than 37,000 people inside and outside the sport had
been sought – is the poor behaviour by young players and parents towards
referees. It is a long-time problem that the FA’s Respect campaign, an
integral part of the overall strategy, is attempting to address.
Again, Triesman believes that the top managers - and players – can play
important roles in the education process. “Referees are not an optional
luxury,” he said. “They are absolutely essential. We all have a
responsibility to make sure that we have enough referees and that they are
treated properly. “
Our leading managers are quite extraordinary, with an incredible record of
accomplishment in the game. People who are in that position are visible and
with that visibility comes responsibility. Respecting a referee has to be
from top to bottom.
“Players are also very public and prestigious figures and if you are saying it
is a lot harder to get respect for referees at the grassroots level if there
isn’t respect for them at the very senior level, then, of course, it’s hard
work.” Triesman, in his wider outlook, will not avoid any issue, including
the thorny problems of the decreasing number of English players in the
Premier League and the availability of them to Fabio Capello, the new
England manager. Yet if another club-versus-country dispute lurks around the
corner, Triesman is keen to avoid it. “We’re not going to lock horns and
have rows about everything,” he said. “I want to have mature discussions
with people about a number of things. I will not name individuals, but I
will talk with people who have leading roles right across the senior ranks.
“People who are in the public eye, who are enormously effective and successful
and have many attributes, have the greatest impact. That is an undeniable
truth, as it would be in any walk of life. The mix of people I talk to is
very important.”
The FA is fighting merely to stand still with its 26,000 referees. It recruits
about 7,000 a year but loses the same number. “Some are too old or it is
down to fitness levels,” Ian Blanchard, the FA’s head of national referee
development, said. “But we can’t get away from the fact that it is the
abusive behaviour directed at them and that refereeing is no longer a
pleasurable experience.”
For hard-pressed match officials in the Premier League, help may be on the
way. As part of the Respect pilot scheme, carried out in seven counties
since January, only captains have been able to approach the referee after a
disputed decision. “Initial indications are that the professional game will
buy into this,” Blanchard said.
The investment
Kelly Simmons, the FA’s head of football development, says that the £200
million investment in the latest National Game Strategy is only a proportion
of the funding that will be feeding the grassroots game over the next four
years.
“We have made big strides, but the beauty of this strategy is there are
significantly more funds from the commercial deals,” Simmons said. “We had
£33 million a year, from 2001, and now it’s nearer £44 million. But there’s
all sorts of other funding as well, such as the £10 million Tesco Skills
Programme.”
In addition, the Football Foundation, which receives £15 million a year from
each of the FA, the Premier League and the Government for its grassroots
projects, match-funds the grants it hands out.
The FA has employed 66 full-time Tesco Skills Coaches to help to prioritise
the coaching of 5 to 11-year-olds. “Utopia would be to have one in every one
of the 450 primary school [cluster] partnerships around the country,”
Simmons said. “But certainly we want to have one in every county.
“And this is not a woolly campaign. This will not sit on the shelf until 2012.
We have to report back every 100 days on these targets. These are clear
targets in the public domain and there is no hiding place.”
The community
Nigel Hargreaves, the FA’s head of strategic investment, believes that the
National Game Strategy only scratches the surface of football’s needs in
England. He has called on the Government to ensure that the Partnership in
Schools programme incorporates as many community accessible facilities as
possible.
“There are at least 50,000 football pitches in this country,” he said. “They
have decayed over the years and the maintenance costs are heavily
subsidised. In 2001, we anticipated there was a £2.2 billion need for
improvement and you could safely say we'd need at least double that now.
“Those who have benefited have been transformed wonderfully and there are so
many good-news examples. But this needs to be sustained so that we have a
snowball effect. We have to be realistic. Sport is in a tricky situation. We
need to regenerate these facilities.”
Hargreaves added that facilities in inner-city areas need massive expansion.
“We have 16 per cent of the population living in London,” he said, “and it
has 3 per cent of the country’s facilities. The Government has a 15-year
plan to help rebuild or refurbish our senior schools and we have to urge
them to take this opportunity to integrate community sports facilities so
that every kid has access to the best facilities.”
The young players
It may sound crazy, but there are still touchline enthusiasts who believe that
bellowing at a nine-year-old for what they are failing to do on a football
field will enhance their development. As part of the Respect campaign, Sue
Law, the FA’s head of equality, is overseeing the appointment of 51
full-time county welfare officers who are responsible for rolling out a
three-part strategy to look after the emotional and physical wellbeing of
the next generation of players.
The FA is investing £1 million a year to give the network of enthusiastic
volunteers, who have been in charge of young footballers’ welfare since
2000, professional support. The welfare officers will ensure that all teams’ coaches
have Criminal Records Bureau checks, teach the voluntary coaches of the
effects of verbal abuse on a child’s development and look out for symptoms
of child abuse that may arise from outside football.
“We want to retain the volunteers and build on their knowledge and
experience,” Law, a former England player, said. “It’ll make a huge
difference to have the people who have the additional knowledge, skills,
experience and willingness to get out there and help the volunteers to make
sure we’re doing what is legally and morally required of us as clubs and as
a sport.”
The schools
Primary school head teachers wondering how this £200 million investment can
help their children can no longer complain about a lack of resources.
However small the school, pupils could soon be running out in the smartest
Nike kit and training with replica Premier League balls, playing matches
with safe goalposts and on all-weather pitches.
The Football Foundation has invested £693 million in 4,918 projects since its
inception seven years ago. Paul Thorogood, the charity’s chief executive,
believes that the FA’s National Game Strategy will increase awareness of
what bounties are available. “The big difference for us is the increased
profile this will bring,” he said. “Small schools will know that they can
apply to footballfoundation.org.uk and can come to us for an immediate £400
voucher, for brand new kit and coaching equipment.”
The Football Foundation liaises with county FAs to determine where new
all-weather surfaces should be situated for clubs and schools to share.
“It’s not just the weather we have to work around in this country, it’s also
the hours of darkness,” Thorogood said. “We aim to get 85 hours of community
use per week for the pitches, so we put lights in on these facilities. We
want to maximise the capacity of the facility.”
Words by Peter Lansley
The FA’s new grassroots strategy has four clear goals
1) To grow and retain participation
2) To raise standards and address abusive behaviour
3) To develop better players
4) To run the game effectively
— Supporting the four goals are two key areas of focus - a skilled
workforce and improved facilities
In England today, there are an active...
7m players
3m adults
4m children
1,700 leagues
26,000 active referees
125,000 teams
400,000 volunteers helping to run game
£44m FA investment per year - up £10m a year
The FA has set itself the following targets for 2012 with this strategy
— To retain 125,000 existing teams and create 20,500 new teams
— To ensure 75 per cent of all registered youth teams attain the FA Charter
Standard award
— To train one million 5 to 11-year-olds through the FA Tesco Skills programme
— To ensure every youth team has at least one FA-qualified coach
— To ensure 75 per cent of football stakeholders agree the FA has improved
grassroots football
— To retain 26,000 active referees and recruit 8,000 new referees
— To use £300 million (including corporate investment) to improve facilities
— To review the FA rule that prohibits boys and girls aged 12 and over from
playing in the same match
