National Footballing Centre taking shape in Staffordshire

It is the grand vision that is now becoming a reality – a national base to develop England's future footballing talent, and it is situated right here in the Midlands, writes

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St George's Park, the new £100 million 330-acre National Footballing Centre being developed near to Barton-under-Needwood is central to the nation's footballing ambitions.

Earmarked as England's answer to Italy's Coverciano or France's Clairefontaine football centres, Football Association bosses hope it will fulfil a similar role, changing the culture of the national game with the aim of mirroring the world and European cup successes experienced by foreign sides.

The FA seeks to emulate the talents of Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010 winners Spain and European Cup winners Barcelona. Both are known for outstanding technical ability on the ball.

Whether it will play a key role in helping England to its first World Cup victory since 1966 is anyone's guess, but it is a remarkable project with a bold vision.

The site will contain two hotels, including conference facilities, a sports hall, a hydrotherapy unit, medical and scientific research resources, and 12 full size pitches — including a replica of the surface at Wembley Stadium.

And bosses are confident it will help to more than double the number of professional coaches in the country by 2018.

Nestled in the countryside, St George's Park is a long way from Wembley, but in central proximity to be the heart and soul of English football coaching for everyone.

Now in its 13th month of construction, it will be completed over the next few months and is set to open in the late summer.

The centre has been long-awaited though. It was first mooted in the 1970s, with firm plans drawn up in 2001, but doubts over funding and the opening of the new Wembley stadium, which ran to over £750m, delayed construction.

The FA eventually approved the centre in December 2007 and announced the following June that it would be located in Staffordshire.

Funding for the project has come from the FA, with supporters including main sponsor Umbro and the Government.

Not only will it be the training base for the England senior football side, but it will be the home for the additional 23 other national sides ranging from under-21s and under-18s right the way through to the women's team, C team, deaf team and futsal side.

Hydrotherapy pools

In addition to this, it will hold thousands of coaching courses every year from Level 3 upwards as well as boasting state-of-the-art medical facilities, a library of coaching material and a lecture theatre.

Hydrotherapy pools - using water for pain relief and to treat illnesses - will allow experts to use science to aid players' recovery.

They were inspired after FA chiefs studied Real Madrid's facilities.

But it's not just meant to be a wow factor for rich England footballers to showcase their talents, the heart and soul of St George's Park reaches all the way down to inspiring football on a grassroots level.

The facility, on the former site of Byrkeley Hall, will aim to transform the way coaching is done and bring a sea-change to the way youngsters learn to play football.

David Sheepshanks, chairman of St George's Park and former chairman of Ipswich Town Football Club, is the man spearheading the project.

He said a vast amount of time and research had gone into formulating plans for the site, including visits to Real Madrid's Academy as well as to other European countries.

The biggest and boldest claim to come from the FA is that it wants to have 250,000 fully qualified football coaches by 2018. There are currently 103,000.

Mr Sheepshanks, who has worked closely with Sir Trevor Brooking on the project, said in some ways St George's Park was comparable to Clairefontaine in France, but added that some of the extra extra indoor training and conference facilities made it wholly different and chiefly he sees the long-term vision of the centre as enabling every footballer to be coached by a qualified coach to become a reality.

"Once we were clear what St George's Park was not going to be, everybody fell in line" he said.

"There is no question this place will be a catalyst for things to come but it's a long-term investment and will seek to raise all of our educational standards.

"Ultimately we are doing this for English football.

"In terms of coaches it's about the quantity and quality. The Government has a very strong agenda on quality.

"But there is no question one of the stimuli is the number of UEFA A and UEFA Pro Licence coaches - these are both low compared to our European neighbours.

"There are 103,000 coaches at the moment - we want 250,000 by 2018."

As for when it opens, he added: "We hope to be open in September."

Mr Sheepshanks - who was elected to the board of Ipswich Town in 1987 – took up the chairman position at Ipswich in 1995.

Coaching courses

He held the position until 2009 and during his time oversaw the production of numerous players from the Ipswich Town academy who went on to secure multi-million pound moves to Premier League clubs.

The list included goalkeeper Richard Wright, midfield man Kieron Dyer, defender Titus Bramble, and striker Connor Wickham. His St George's Park project boasts high class accommodation including two Hilton hotels that will enable thousands of people to stay while completing coaching courses.

Of course, it will also be the base for the England team and their new manager after training, whoever may fill the current vacant position.

Disabled soldiers injured in Afghan bomb blasts will be able to use the hydrotherapy and rehabilitation facilities and other sporting institutions from the worlds of golf, tennis and cricket will be able to make use of the academic resources in the St George's Park library.

One hope of the FA's new footballing complex would be to increase the number of black coaches and managers in the game.

Following Terry Connor's appointment as Wolves' boss, there are four black managers throughout the English leagues.

When a quarter of football players are black, it illustrates the lack of former players successfully finding their way into the English game.

Mr Sheepshanks said that helping to increase opportunities for black coaches was key for the FA and St George's Park.

"This is hugely important for the FA and St George's Park will be a catalyst for wider opportunity in this area," he said. "We have Wayne Allison (former Huddersfield and Tranmere striker) coming onto the FA's staff while there's also Brendon Batson involved with us too."

The two hotels on site, include a 142-bedroom Hilton Hotel and an 86-bedroom Hampton by Hilton Hotel.

The full-size replica of Wembley pitch measuring 105 metres by 68 metres will have the same turf, dimensions and orientation as the original.

An additional state-of-the-art indoor pitch measures 120ft by 80ft while there are 11 additional outdoor pitches and a multi-purpose indoor sports hall.

St George's Park will be the new base for the League Managers' Association and will provide between 250 and 300 jobs for the area.

League 2 side Burton Albion is currently trains there. Members of the community will also have the chance to use some of the pitches in off-peak season events.

"It's about the whole development knitting together," added Mr Sheepshanks.

"I have spent the last three or four years seeing how we could do this centre and I don't buy it that it has to be for football alone."

St George's Park envisages that 80 per cent of aspiring coaches attending will come from grass-roots level of football.

Former England manager Fabio Capello often lamented the limited talent pool at his disposal.

The building of St George's Park comes at the same time as another significant change in the way young talent within English football is run.

The Premier League and Football League's academies will be re-structured as part of the Elite Player Performance Plan from the start of next season.

The changes will see academies independently graded in four different levels.

Academies will be independently audited and given a category status of 1 to 4, with 1 being the most elite.

Up to 10 different factors will be considered in the grading, including productivity rates, training facilities and coaching.

The idea behind the plans is to increase the number and quality of home grown players gaining professional contracts at clubs and going on to play first-team football at the highest level.

It also aims the improve the amount of coaching received by talented youngsters aspiring to be the nation's next David Beckham.