The Future Of English Football

This is a subject that has been receiving a lot of attention of late, not just in the media but from within the games' governing bodies, concerns have been raised and opinions voiced about the possible dangers lurking for the future of the game in this country

It is a subject on which Football England obviously feel very strongly. We too are concerned and our fears are manifold. This article will address some of those worries, though probably nowhere near all of them.

The first thing to establish here is what I, personally, mean by English football.

To me English football doesn't mean Manchester United and Chelsea and Liverpool etc. and the Premier League. These clubs and the league they play in are obviously in rude health, living the life of luxury thanks to Sky's billions and a clutch of foreign investors.

Most of these clubs, and the league itself, will survive and go on to thrive even if Sky and their wealthy backers decide to pull the plug sometime in the future.

Although I am particularly concerned with England we may as well call it Britain. The traditions and style of playing football has always been the same within these isles and whereas I had no problem whatsoever with the proliferation of Scots, Welsh and Irish who used to populate our clubs; I am nowhere near as enamoured of the invasion of foreigners we now have.

When anyone talks about an English, or British, way of playing everybody understands exactly what is meant.

The images conjured are of blood and thunder, hard tackling, fast, furious, whole hearted football.

It is an image which has come to be derided in many places and, as a nation, we are being encouraged to disown and be embarrassed by it.
We are being assailed from every angle with the "fact" that our football is backward and ineffective. That we are labourers rather than craftsmen.
The latest person throwing fuel on the fire was Trevor Brooking who went into great detail in describing the way our coaching at youth level lags behind the continent.
Basically, he reckoned, we don't get our boys at a young enough age, we don't have the coaching resources to properly train the ones we do catch and this means that at the age of sixteen our budding footballers cannot compare with those in Spain, France and Italy etc.