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Are you a Daily Mail reader by any chance?

Also, the object of the game would be to win, so competativeness would need to be introduced and we might need to overcome the namby pamby establishment.
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One of the main reasons behind me wanting to get a job in the education sector.

My goal - to get things back to how they used to be 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Win, Lose, Draw and not 'its the taking part that counts' rubbish that kids are being fed with these days!

Don't read any newspapers, that's for losers or people who don't know what to think.

All the information is out there on the web, why be brain washed by people without brains

Good sentiments Fowler.............but.

I think there are already people like you there.

It's the idiots who can't do a proper job themselves so set the rules for others.

You'll probably have more success setting up ePetitions.

However, I truly hope I'm wrong, good luck

How about....


developing your own young players and not taking them from other clubs when they start to look decent. That way, there's more of an incentive for smaller clubs to produce their own young players thus making the national pool a higher quality.

One big problem I've noticed here in England, is the lack of football pitches.

You'll have to pay money to get on to a decent astroturf pitch.
While other European countries have them all each area, free of use.

Then they moan about Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese players producing better talent.

England are not serious about football. It's those little things you need to sort out.

SKA,

How about................................................

Putting your silly little biased comments on one side and joining a debate about an article which was written to discuss the downfall of sports in our nation/

Of course, I can understand your frustration, born through your affilliation with a little club. But, don't let your loss fuel your hatred and bitterness.

I can understand that your club has a pathetic academy which is nowhere near ours, the envy of most clubs.

But, at least try child.

developing your own young players and not taking them from other clubs when they start to look decent. That way, there's more of an incentive for smaller clubs to produce their own young players thus making the national pool a higher quality.

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SKA, I've been saying this for years mate. Its out of order that clubs can take their pick of young players from smaller teams. Half these kids don't make it at the bigger clubs, whereas they might have had a chance at the smaller clubs.

Also to stop putting height, power and pace ahead of technique.

CurlyBlackWig, I think you may have misread SKA's comments. He makes a good point.

Not sure you can extract a universal from this, but here's what happens in my local village in Capdepera, Mallorca.


Not only do the local council provide a sports stadium (track around pitch) and an outdoor swimming pool, plus other facilities on the same complex - it's all free to use by **organised** clubs and associations.

The stadium is used mainly in the evening - the school next door has first dabs during the day - and is floodlit free of charge.

There is a bar, and a restaurant and it will come as no surprise to learn that any event tends to be very well supported by the locals.

By the way, Mallorca is bankrupt, but cutting certain social provisions, as above, is simply beyond the pale. It just wouldn't wash.

But hey, there's enough private, and **black** money awash here that the situation doesn't look like it'll change despite Spain going down the pan, any time soon.

We make be broke, but we've still got the best footballers, currently, on the planet. Could that be, somehow, connected to the social provision mentioned above?

Beeb
You should see the dross running around here calling themselves 'footballers'. It's hilarious.

i got my kid new boots a couple of weeks ago because he made his junior school team.

he hasn't worn them yet becsue he weather hasn'r been good enough on practise day and as such its been cancelled. What has the world come too that kids cant play footie in the rain

My eldest's cross country was cancelled on Monday because of rain too

It is just nuts

we should play more football in schools, and we should put emphasis on technique and passing the ball properly.

I think perhaps schools ought to focus on their primary role of teaching kids; this will benefit society in all ways ultimately.

If people were educated then they might understand that football in the rest of the world has improved so much that that is the reason UK players no longer supply the top players, rather than pretend that kids no longer play football, or that things like X-Boxes and obesity might have more of a part to play than cliched pseudo-socio-political claptrap.

FatJan

CBW understood the idiots comments perfectly well.

I think it is you that may have misunderstood.

I do agree with the sentiments expressed here up to a point, however I think you need look no further than our cricket team to show how an improved set up within the national squad can vastly improve players.

Fewer people (especially young people) play cricket in England than football, yet we are the best team in the world.

This is due to the fact that a player who is offered a central contract with England is guaranteed to get game time and be given an extended chance in the team.

In football, however, kids are picked for the odd friendly and then never see the shirt again for years. The likes of Ricketts, Jeffers and Hendrie picked up cheap caps despite never being good enough simply because the manager wanted to be seen to be giving youth a chance.

What needs to be done is to organise more national team training sessions, and to ensure that young players coming into the team 1. are good enough and 2. will be given enough time to gel into the squad.

FatJan

CBW understood the idiots comments perfectly well.

I think it is you that may have misunderstood.

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Is SKA a bit of a win then? Even if I misunderstood
it it was still a valid point. Too many youngsters are taken for by the PL teams from other teams too young and don't develop. I personally don't think you should be able to buy anyone until they are 18 and not 16.

Sarcasm by any chance???

"I'm thinking about introducing football as a school sport."

Isn't it already there? I remember playing football in school and I'm still young


"We also need to get over these silly health and safety rules because it's difficult to play in all that padding."

Can't remember playing football in pads. Health and safety in Europe may be excessive, it isn't the case when it comes to football though


"Also, the object of the game would be to win, so competativeness would need to be introduced and we might need to overcome the namby pamby establishment."

At young age it isn't about winning, it's about haveing fun. Too much emphasis on winning puts pressure on the kids

how many countries play first class cricket?

Its hardly a major sporting achievement being the best in the world (read Empire) at cricket.

A bit like Rugby too. The fact NZ is the best in the world at this team game says a lot. Consider that the most successful Kiwi sporting person ever is a golf Caddy!

Also may I add it's the way football is thought in this country that is letting the country down.

But 10-15 years ago, before the changes were brought into place, England were the worst test nation in the world. The central contract system has improved the standard phenomenally.

It's what has turned 11 men into a team.

Obviously clubs have far more power in football than they have ever had in cricket and so it is hard to think that players would be released as easily for national duty, but I still think if we want to be the best, we have to nurture our talent better and form a more united squad.

I don't know the exact statistics, but I'd hazard a guess that more people play cricket in Austrailia, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the West Indies, than in England. I think the point is, that it is the way the game is taught here, the infrastructure, facilities etc. that have led to England becoming a dominant force.

I'd hazard a guess that more people play cricket in Austrailia, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the West Indies, than in England.
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percentage wise per head of population, yes they do. But we require Cricket in England to still be an elite sport played in Public Schools.

I dont think I have ever played a proper game of Cricket in my life, (with pads, umpires and corkies, because at my school it wasn't on the curriculum. In PE we played football or badminton.

Having said that as a kid I used to go to watch Lancy on Sundays at OT. Cricket was a sport I was allowed to watch but not play.

I believe that is changing though, and that cricket are trying to broaden the scope to get more people playing the sport. Obviously, the more people playing it, the likelihood is that you will produce more quality players.

However, England have clearly got a very advanced cricketing system that allows them to produce more decent players than let's say a country like Pakistan, whose numbers probably dwarf that of Englands.

Essentially, although numbers are an advantage, it is the way the sport is taught that is important. Examples in football being Uruguay whose population is about 3.5 million, Netherlands is about 17 mil, and Spain 46 mil - this is in comparison to England's 51 mil.

And they're producing players like Suarez, Forlan, RVP, Sneijder, Villa, Xavi etc. and we have Andy Carroll and Gareth Barry.