The Future Game

2010 has been a year of soul-searching for English football. That’s in the past, but what about the future? Pavl Williams was at the FA’s The Future Game conference to find out as Just Football’s youth football and youth development theme continues.

“What’s the idea?” asks Sir Trevor Brooking as he opens The Future Game conference in front of 637 grassroots coaches in Wembley Stadium’s cavernous events hall.

“The idea is we’re not producing sufficiently good technical players in enough numbers.”

This is the pretext for the second instalment of The Football Association’s ‘Future Game’ document. After years of bickering, false starts and frustrating turf battles with the Premier League and Football League, The FA have had a thorough investigation into the issues in youth development and developed a plan which they believe will lift English football up to world-class standards.

The Future Game is the manifesto, agenda and instructional manual which they hope will bring about their vision. The document for Elite players (ostensibly Academy football) was launched in April and garnered a largely favourable reaction.

It is in the grassroots game where the problems afflicting the game are most apparent and where instigating change is going to be most challenging and contentious. The presenters at Wembley were quick to recognise the importance of better practice at the base of the football pyramid.

Eric Harrison, Head of Coaching for FA partner McDonald’s made his name as the youth team manager at Manchester United. During their ‘Golden Generation’ he worked with Giggs, Scholes, Beckham, Butt and the Neville brothers but he insisted that “without grassroots coaches there’d be no football…no matter what level, better coaching makes better players”.

This was the theme of the day. If England wants better football then it must start by improving the grassroots game. As John Peacock, Manager of England’s European U17 Championship winning side, put it, “all the players we deal with will start at grassroots with [FA] Level 1 and Level 2 coaches.”

The Future Game itself is a hefty package containing an entire book dedicated to the development philosophy and another featuring over 200 practices. Finally there is a DVD which provides more details and allows coaches to see some of the key practices in action.

Whilst some critics have commented that The FA need to define their vision more simply, much as Spain’s footballing philosophy is ‘tiki-taka’ and Brazil’s ‘joga bonito’, the first section is an impressive work. It deals with subjects as diverse as pitch sizes and physiology, theories of motivation and concepts of self. Most importantly of all it describes the skill-set players need to develop if they are to compete in the modern game.

“We want players who can be creative, win 1v1s and make the right decisions,” explains Brooking. “Players who can pass and keep the ball; possession is key.”

The FA have determined the average number of touches per possession is now just 2.1 in the Premier League (it is similar in Spain, Germany and Italy). At the top clubs (Arsenal, Manchester United & Chelsea) the average time taken to make these touches is just 1 second.

If today’s grassroots players are to make an impact on the international scene of the future they will need to have exceptional technical skills. “The fact is our 5-11 year olds aren’t good enough” explained Sir Trevor Brooking, with England manager Fabio Capello adding, “after 14 we can look at tactics… first players must enjoy the game.”

The strategy for improving grassroots coaching has five key components; building the National Football Centre at St George’s Park, creating more age-appropriate coaching qualifications – including an alternative UEFA A licence, increased opportunity for coach mentoring, replacing the FA Coaches Association with the FA licenced coach’s club and developing a coaching academy where best practice can be shared.

The crux of the idea is the professionalisation of coaching.

The FA acknowledge they cannot impose a cultural change on English football from the top.

At the Future Game conference they invited grassroots coaches to help build a better football from the bottom up.

Pavl Williams is a professional coach and the editor of youth soccer coaching site BetterFootball.net. He can be found on Twitter at twitter.com/betterfootball

Coaching, Youth Football