Courtesy: The FA.com

Wembley has wow factor

By Graeme Dell

Monday, 26 March 2007

Graeme was in awe when he went to Wembley on Saturday. Read about his trip to the new stadium as well as the latest Futsal developments.

Hi again.

Well, all I can say is wow! I’m still in awe at how magnificent the new Wembley Stadium is.

I decided to take a Saturday off from my general routine of scouting players and go to the Under-21s game and it was simply a breathtaking experience that’ll live long in my memory.

The enormity of the constriction really is something to behold. With only 60,000 people inside you still get the feel for what the atmosphere will be like when its full, especially for an England game.

I vividly remember my father taking me to my first Wembley experience, an FA Amateur Cup Final in 1974 between Bishops Stortford and Ilford. I’d been to the old stadium many times since. To see the transformation is awesome but it’s been well worth the wait and that was the general consensus echoing around the seats on Saturday.

I know there’s been loads of publicity surrounding how long it’s taken and how much it cost but you know what – we now have something to be proud of and take pride in.

I have been very fortunate in my football career so far and having travelled around the world and I am really struggling to find a comparable stadium. I think Wembley is a stadium in its own right, it’s like no other around the world that I’ve seen and that’s remarkable. I was struck by the opulence of it as a sporting arena, it makes going to a game more of an event and an experience irrespective of what age you are.

In fact I was so into the stadium I almost forgot the game - only kidding! But it was great for those youngsters to have this opportunity at a place they will grow up with. I thought they played well in places and scored some great goals even if the fluidity of play wasn’t quite what we might have liked to see but the Italians were a decent team at this level.

The stadium attracts such widespread interest groups and yet the first person I bumped in to was Kevin Gallen from QPR who I coached during my time there, although he’s currently enjoying a period on loan at Plymouth. Marc Bircham was also with him but I think he got lost at the food kiosk!

There's a family link with the Gallens as his brother Steve captained the Futsal team until injury forced him to take a back seat, and cousin Brendan played for me in Turkey in 2005 at the student 11-a-side championships.

A week or so back the F30 group were at Lilleshall and we once more did some focused work whilst also reviewing new players which is now an ongoing process with no let up. But we also have to balance it so that we keep progressing the established F30 lads in the group.

Our Head Sports Scientist at The FA, Gary Phillips, keeps an eye on the group and in many cases devises specific personalised training programmes for each of them.

As the Futsal club structure is still developing, physiology is one key area we have had to focus on. It’s a specialist task to ensure that their specific training is structured to allow them to switch between football and Futsal whilst also focusing on Futsal specifics for the dedicated Futsal players.

Gary is a key part of my staff team and also part of the Under-21 staff group. He’s got an awesome amount of experience having worked on the elite performance staff for British Swimming at the Sydney and Athens Olympics as well as the Manchester Commonwealth Games.

Having known him for a number of years he’s also a good mate too, a thread shared with my entire staff team. Gaz and I usually speak about three times a week, normally when we’re stuck in traffic somewhere around the motorway networks!

We’ve had numerous discussions and meetings over the past week with the rest of our medical team regarding the feedback from the physiology data we’ve now acquired from the F30 Programme over the past couple of years.

It gives us a very clear vision of the demands of the game which is allowing us to draw up a profile of the ideal Futsal player’s attributes which is important for developing the game and the right sort of player for our future at this game.

Without getting too scientific about it, what’s evolving is that generally you need to have a V02 Max of around 55ml/kg-1 to be able to play the game effectively, but more specifically to play Futsal at an international level that needs to be about 60 and above.

To put that into context, for those of us familiar with the bleep test, this means being able to reach beyond level 11 as an absolute minimum to play the game effectively but the player must have capabilities beyond level 13 to play internationally.

We’ve set this as a guide to the endurance capability of the player we want but it has to be linked to being able to continually carry out repeated short range sprints time after time and these are the key areas we’ve focused on for the F30 Group.

Our next meet up won’t now be until the end of May as I decided to cancel the Easter session due to their club commitments over the Bank Holiday but that’s too long between workshops and demonstrates why we need a national Futsal league which runs all season.

One of my other remits is the national student group and that entails, amongst other tasks, keeping an eye on over 300 overseas based players, predominantly on scholarships in the USA and with many thousands here in the UK too. With an upcoming championships in Thailand later in the year I’ve spent much of the past fortnight with my head stuck into my laptop chatting online with their coaches and seeing how they’re progressing.

There’s an increasing number of talented British lads making the grade out there with two in this year's MSL Draft and two who have also made the Major Indoor League draft, but more of that next time.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Catch you in a couple of weeks.

Graeme


Your Questions

Is it frustrating that many of your current crop of players don’t play regular club Futsal? With the formation of the FPL Southern & Northern Conferences containing the top club Futsal teams in the country, can you see the benefit in it being made mandatory for players to play outside of the England set up?
Ben Tadmor

In some ways it is but they are an intelligent group and they learn fast. At the moment we have no yardstick by which to determine what are the best Futsal teams in the country and it's not just about playing ability, it also has to be coaching and club structure. The league you refer to is one of a number around the country, which is good to see, although until the pyramid is structured there is no basis for claiming it's the best one in the country so I don't agree with you on that. I have seen players from this league and had some on trial with England but I am still finding their knowledge of the game is limited to five-a-side, so much more has to be done in that area by the clubs to develop a Futsal education. I see no reason to make it mandatory to simply play Futsal to play for England, although that appears to be what the community wants but we won't progress that way. When we get a proper national league set up and we know the quality of player and coaching at that level then it will self propagate players to the national team. Rest assured, if the players are good enough they will get selected.


Up here Middlesbrough Futsal Club, myself and our manager Damon Shaw, are planning to launch an U16s team over the coming months before working our way down the age groups to your target age of U11. Is there any advice you would give to clubs like ours who want to develop the game in our area? How would you suggest we first put the game across to the young people? We have arranged visits for taster sessions at local schools with a view to increasing local interest, and plan to advertise locally but any expert advice would be appreciated. Is there a possibility of the England team moving around the country playing exhibition matches, maybe playing against teams of the best players from the leagues around the country?
Andy Lindridge

That is good news and I am aware of the work your club is doing. The key is the younger age groups and that's where I think you should focus, especially the five-11 year olds to get them growing up with the game. The 11-16s are also important but at this age they will be too far developed to make a major impact upon them although it will feed your men's team in the short term, so stick with it.
The game has to be fun, simply let them play. But ensure you apply the laws, don't play it on astro, play in a gym to get the speed of the game. Ensure that you work as hard with the four players who don't have the ball than the one with it. This is the bit getting lost by our men's Futsal teams at the moment - what the players who don't have the ball do, where do they run, how do they support the pass? The ones without the ball are more important than the one with it.
The national team doesn't play club teams for a variety of sensible reasons, save for training games perhaps. We are looking to road show the games but finding suitable venues is a difficulty as we have to play on an international size court.


Hi Graeme. I am enthusiastic about the small-sided football game and have been looking for information on how I could participate in the game on a club or national level? Please help.
Christopher Mhango

There are many clubs setting up around the country now so if you contact your local Football Development Officer they will be aware of the club teams in your area and can advise you. They will also know the leagues which are operating but try and get to a club which plays regularly rather than in a league which simply operates over a few weekends.



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com