1. Sack the board of the FA : not fit for purpose. 2. Stop playing 11 year olds on full size pitches. 3. From the ages of 7 to 14 the emphasis should be technique. 4. Kids of that age group should play on smaller pitches to encourage passing and ball retention. 5. Do not allow agents to represent players until they are 21
I'm not talking about academies in Spain, where did I say that? I'm taking about local football clubs. I've seen them with my own eyes, in small towns, just the local team which has professionally qualified coaches. Not academies, not La Masia, but just small locally run clubs in small towns. Kids from age 5 train on great pitches, with good equipment and proper coaches. This is much different from England, and is why Spain produce, not just world class players, but lots of players of a good standard. They have guys who'd walk into England's XI who haven't even been capped. Grassroots is at fault, not because of the people involved, but because they lack funding and facilities.
Best fans - I don't know where you are based, but grassroots football around Leeds and Yorkshire has exploded. Every club has qualified coaches and put many more through the system every year as new kids come through. Many clubs have built their own little clubhouses with money from the Lottery etc over the past 10 years and have their own grounds. These small towns you talk of - are you talking about clubs equivalent to Wigton Moor or Pannal Ash (ie real grassroots without an adult team to progress to), Yorkshire Amateur or Harrogate Railway (children's teams of clubs whose adult teams play in the lower echelons of the pyramid structure), Harrogate Town or Nuneaton Borough (children's teams whose adult teams play in the higher echelons of non-league), or the lower reaches of the Spainsh professional leagues? Each of the small "suburb" towns of Harrogate - Darley, Pateley Bridge, Hampsthwaite, Beckwithshaw, Ilkley, Otley etc - all have their own "real grassroot" clubs. Otley and Ilkley have great facilities, many clubs in Harrogate have great facilities, as do clubs in Leeds. The main issue is the weather wrecking the pitches and the number of kids age groups using the pitches. Kids football is massive. You also need to compare that the size of the country is much smaller to that of Spaion or France, yet we have many more people in it, and this makes land (and its cost) a premium. But I reiterate - the main problem is the parents and the way the professional clubs deal with an elite of kids
