Radical Solutions

[Guest Bilo]

In light of two successive disasters in English international football, it is clear that excuses can no longer be made. England aren't good enough to be compete at a major tournament with this squad of players. The Golden Generation is a hideous myth and frankly, if you even think about putting a bet on us to win Euro 2012, you're blatantly on crack. What the English game needs now is radical solutions. No half measures, just gutsy and progressive thinking that is for the good of all in the game and not just the moneyed elite for whom the game has been so servile since 1992. There are epic amounts of money involved in the Premier League and the FA, and this has been cited as a reason for our national game being rotten. But it can be used for good, it can be used to build great English teams and players. If Germany can create a team of attacking, technically gifted players then so can England. Why shouldn't the next Lionel Messi be an Englishman? These are distant dreams right now because of the way we run our game but we need to start breaking balls and treading on toes if England are not to become a bigger version of our neighbours to the North.

Thus, I offer three radical solutions.

1) Scrap or severely reduce parachute payments to clubs relegated from the Premier League.

£12 million per relegated club, per year for four years. Why does our game insist on rewarding failure so handsomely? Just imagine what £144 million could do for youth development at grassroots level, totally unaffiliated with any one club and interested only in creating quality players waiting to be snapped up by clubs across the country. That money could build several top quality centres of excellence, employ the coaches to run them, fund the academies for a few years and educate the young players until they become professional. Instead, that same amount will be shovelled into the bank accounts of Burnley, Hull City and Portsmouth between now and 2014. That same amount will be shovelled into the bank accounts of the clubs to be relegated from the Premiership between May 2011 and May 2015, and so on and so forth. Where is the encouragement for Premiership clubs to live within their means? Instead, clubs are given £90 million when promoted to spend how they like and can spend the lot, safe in the knowledge they'll be granted the thick end of another £50 million even if they do a Derby. The result is that even clubs like Blackpool can now scour Europe for talent in the Premiership, to the neglect of young English players waiting in the wings. Without this safety net, clubs would be forced to manage their finances effectively. Invest in their own academies, schools of excellence or whatever you want to call them rather than nip over to Warsaw five minutes after lifting the play-off trophy to blow £6 million on the latest Polish wonderkid. If clubs tightened their belts and were prepared to grow talent rather than import it, the depth of English quality would begin to grow.

2) Ensure the clubs that make the most out of football put the most into it.

Horse racing has an interesting approach. Betting is of course a major element of the sport, and off -course bookmakers make millions from it. To ensure that this is for the good of the sport, the bookmaking companies pay a levy that is invested into the grassroots of the sport to ensure that smaller courses are as able to survive as more illustrious ones. The bigger the bookmaker, the more levy they pay because they make the most money out of it. Simple. What if football worked the same way? What if Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City paid a percentage of their enormous turnover into the grassroots of the game? We see football clubs in the lower leagues going into administration because they can't pay the equivalent of three days wages for Wayne Rooney. The National Football Centre at Burton is on and off all the time because of the costs involved, £100 million apparently. Yet Manchester United's turnover was estimated at £280 million this year and Chelsea's transfer policy since Abramovich landed at Stamford Bridge has seen them dwarf that figure. The big clubs milk the cow dry year on year and it's high time they fed the cow.

3) Sponsor Soccer Schools

Not just centres of excellence or training pitches but actual schools. The coalition government has thrown its hat into the ring regarding academies, partly funded by the taxpayer and partly by a private sponsor. These have included the Church of England, the Samworth Brothers in Leicester and charitable organisations. The FA should seriously look into it as well. Academies have a lot of freedom with their curricula when compared to more conventional state schools, so an academy sponsored by a business would be heavily interested in pursuing business interests. If the FA were to do the same, there could be high quality football coaching for children in mainstream schools as PE, particularly football, became a major point of interest. Affiliated with football centres around the country, promising players in academy school teams could be fast-tracked to without having to make the choice between their sport and their education. It has to be said that German footballers are generally far better educated than their English counterparts. This has benefits for later in their careers as they are more likely to have the nous to become coaches when they hang up their boots, another area where England falls down on. Also, generally intelligent people will be able to pick things up far more quickly with all the obvious benefits that would have in one's playing career.

These are big steps and not everyone will agree I'm sure, but we have a major problem in this country and it needs to be addressed with more than just piecemeal answers.

[Jimothy]

When can you take over running of the FA?

[Nationwider]

God, I was going to start an essay, but I can't be arsed.

In a nutshell, The Premier League runs English football, not the FA. The Premier League doesn't give a shit about Team England and why should it as it's a multinational brand. England has never had a culture of producing technically gifted footballers - the 1966 winners were grafters who had more than a slice of luck along the way. There is no silver bullet on the skills issue, witness the LTA spending £250m to produce **** all tennis players - the problem is mainly social and motivational, partly to do with climate and facilities, partly historical. Throwing money around won't get us a World Cup winners medal - the streets of Sao Paulo will always produce more talent than a gymnasium in Burton-on-Trent. English culture is not about aspiration. John Terry won't win a World Cup winners medal because he doesn't need to; he already has everything. The same is true of most kids aged 9. We are too self-deprecating as a nation, fear of failure is stitched into our DNA, - not bad qualities, just not ones that win World Cups anymore. You will not see England win the World Cup. Don't let it ruin your life.

[Rocket-Ron]

God, I was going to start an essay, but I can't be arsed.

In a nutshell, The Premier League runs English football, not the FA. The Premier League doesn't give a shit about Team England and why should it as it's a multinational brand. England has never had a culture of producing technically gifted footballers - the 1966 winners were grafters who had more than a slice of luck along the way. There is no silver bullet on the skills issue, witness the LTA spending £250m to produce **** all tennis players - the problem is mainly social and motivational, partly to do with climate and facilities, partly historical. Throwing money around won't get us a World Cup winners medal - the streets of Sao Paulo will always produce more talent than a gymnasium in Burton-on-Trent. English culture is not about aspiration. John Terry won't win a World Cup winners medal because he doesn't need to; he already has everything. The same is true of most kids aged 9. We are too self-deprecating as a nation, fear of failure is stitched into our DNA, - not bad qualities, just not ones that win World Cups anymore. You will not see England win the World Cup. Don't let it ruin your life.

Cool then the answer is to scrap the education system

[davieG]

3) Sponsor Soccer Schools

Not just centres of excellence or training pitches but actual schools. The coalition government has thrown its hat into the ring regarding academies, partly funded by the taxpayer and partly by a private sponsor. These have included the Church of England, the Samworth Brothers in Leicester and charitable organisations. The FA should seriously look into it as well. Academies have a lot of freedom with their curricula when compared to more conventional state schools, so an academy sponsored by a business would be heavily interested in pursuing business interests. If the FA were to do the same, there could be high quality football coaching for children in mainstream schools as PE, particularly football, became a major point of interest. Affiliated with football centres around the country, promising players in academy school teams could be fast-tracked to without having to make the choice between their sport and their education. It has to be said that German footballers are generally far better educated than their English counterparts. This has benefits for later in their careers as they are more likely to have the nous to become coaches when they hang up their boots, another area where England falls down on. Also, generally intelligent people will be able to pick things up far more quickly with all the obvious benefits that would have in one's playing career.

These are big steps and not everyone will agree I'm sure, but we have a major problem in this country and it needs to be addressed with more than just piecemeal answers.

The FA haven't got a pot to piss in there only income of any substance is what they make from England International games and the FA Cup but they owe so much on the bloated Wembley it leaves them with next to nothing that's why the Burton Centre is on/off and now a much reduced entity.

The only real money in football in the Premier League and that disappears from the English game via transfer fees, in the main to foreign players and player wages. That's why inspite of all the income the English football cupboard is bare.

[marbelladave]

Whilst Bilo's suggestions are interesting and would certainly help produce better players the reality is that the only organisation with the muscle to make it happen is the Premier League and they hate the England national team. Don't hold your breath.

Parachute payments are a device to give the Premier League exactly what it wants, total control over the top clubs. The increased payments will create a de facto elite of around 24/25 clubs with the rest nowhere. This allows the Prem to produce competitive product (to a degree) with issues at both ends of the table and the illusion of free access to any club good enough to gain promotion.

In reality the same dozen or so teams will rotate between the bottom of the Prem and the top of the Championship so the Premier League will have the 'franchised' closed shop it always wanted. The rest of football, from the England team to the Conference are all irrelevant.

[poopbutt]

jsut seen the thread stating what i just wrote

[Webbo]

You know not every Brazilian player comes from a shanty town and not every English player comes from a privileged back ground.

[Fosse Boy]

God, I was going to start an essay, but I can't be arsed.

In a nutshell, The Premier League runs English football, not the FA. The Premier League doesn't give a shit about Team England and why should it as it's a multinational brand. England has never had a culture of producing technically gifted footballers - the 1966 winners were grafters who had more than a slice of luck along the way. There is no silver bullet on the skills issue, witness the LTA spending £250m to produce **** all tennis players - the problem is mainly social and motivational, partly to do with climate and facilities, partly historical. Throwing money around won't get us a World Cup winners medal - the streets of Sao Paulo will always produce more talent than a gymnasium in Burton-on-Trent. English culture is not about aspiration. John Terry won't win a World Cup winners medal because he doesn't need to; he already has everything. The same is true of most kids aged 9. We are too self-deprecating as a nation, fear of failure is stitched into our DNA, - not bad qualities, just not ones that win World Cups anymore. You will not see England win the World Cup. Don't let it ruin your life.

Sadly correct.

All three ideas are fantastic but while the culture of football being for profit and not for trophies continues to reign in this country at all levels (from the corridors of FA HQ, to the boardrooms of club, down to the attitudes of individual players), there will be no change.

[FoxyPV]

In the short term you could just shoot one of either Lampard or Gerrard and that would solve that midfield problem.

Spot on comments Bilo.

[mancunianfox]

One of the FA's biggest problems is that its only real source of income is the England team. The FA rely hugely on sponsorship, advertising and match day revenues and I don't think its unreasonable to speculate on whether or not this has had implications on the team as well. In my opinion there are a group of England players who because of hype and commercial interest consider themselves un-droppable and I think this has had a detrimental effect on their performances and England being able to bring young and fringe players into the side.