A Belgian Blueprint:

[Don1]

Well we are right back where we started. What possible advantage could vermaen have had joining an academy? He should have stayed in school.

If the more developed powers do not have that confidence in the their school system then......How can we develop an extra curricular activity to a competitive level? Many schools are challenged with finding desks for christake!

But this is not really the point.

The point is Jamaica's clubs CANNOT afford academies.

Consequently Jamaica must construct a unique football development system using ALL the stakeholders in the football value chain.

So to ignore those schools which choose to play competitive football as being part of the solution would be ludicrous.... many schools have good infrastructure in playfields & support facilities we can't afford to replicate....along with their academic infrastructure and obviously a player pool

As I said before the solution to the "football problem" is for the JFF, ISSSA, Govt, Clubs AND schools to work together to build an affordable development system customized for Jamaica's condition.... we CANNOT afford to ape that foreign "Club Academy" concept.

The Belgian example above is instructive

[Don1]

The story of how one man, armed with a brochure and tactical nous, changed a nation from championship no-hopers to global superstars


By Stephen Mcgowan
PUBLISHED: 18:37 EST, 4 September 2013 | UPDATED: 18:37 EST, 4 September 2013 749 shares
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No one can say for certain when the tipping point was reached. When Belgian football looked deep into its soul and discovered an empty hollow.

Some say the European Championship of 2000 was the watershed. Co-hosts of the tournament with Holland, Belgian aspirations were high.

They would go on to reach a sixth successive World Cup in 2002, they were a nation to be reckoned with.

Shock: Belgium were humiliated when they were knocked out of the group stages of their own tournament






Change: The days of Enzo Scifo (right, with England's Paul Gascoigne) were over



Different style: And although there was some encouragement when reaching the World Cup in 2002, one man knew something had to be done...


Game changer: Michel Sablon had a simple, but effective, idea to inspire a footballing nation

But the days of Enzo Scifo and Franky Vercauteren had gone. When Turkey pipped the co-hosts as qualifiers from their first-round group at Euro 2000, there was humiliation. But no real surprise.

Their best young players were heading elsewhere. To France and the Netherlands. The Jupiler pro league was no longer seen as a place for young players to blossom and grow.

At the glass-fronted offices of the Belgian Football Association on the outskirts of Brussels, the technical director, Michel Sablon, saw football moving on and Belgium failing to move with it.

‘Our professional clubs were failing,’ he tells Sportsmail. ‘And the level of football from the national teams was not good enough.

‘We could not compete with the major countries like Spain and France.

‘So, in 2002 we started to look closely at France and had meetings with them twice a year. We did the same with Holland. Sometimes we met with Germany as well and tried to improve what we were doing.

‘At that time we were nowhere. Our Under-17 and Under-19 teams were ranked between 23 and 28 in the world. We really were nowhere. Now? We are top 10.’

It was hardly an overnight journey.

Time: Slowly but surely, players started to be produced, some in Belgium, like Vincent Kompany (left, with Celtic's John Hartson



Technique: While Eden Hazard plied his trade in France with Lille


A FRIGHTENING SQUAD...


Belgium squad for World Cup qualifers:
Goalkeepers: Koen Casteels (Hoffenheim), Thibaut Courtois (Atletico Madrid), Simon Mignolet (Liverpool).

Defenders: Toby Alderweireld (Atletico Madrid), Laurent Ciman (Standard Liege), Guillaume Gillet (Anderlecht), Nicolas Lombaerts (Zenit St. Petersburg), Sebastien Pocognoli (Hanover 96), Daniel van Buyten (Bayern Munich), Jelle van Damme (Standard Liege), Jan Vertonghen (Tottenham Hotspur)

Midfielders: Nacer Chadli (Tottenham Hotspur), Steven Defour (Porto), Moussa Dembele (Tottenham Hotspur), Marouane Fellaini (Manchester United), Timmy Simons (Club Bruges), Axel Witsel (Zenit St. Petersburg)

Forwards: Zakaria Bakkali (PSV Eindhoven), Christian Benteke (Aston Villa), Kevin de Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku (all Chelsea), Dries Mertens (Napoli), Kevin Mirallas (Everton).


Sablon, a member of the Belgian coaching team at the World Cup finals in Mexico, Italy and the United States, sat down with a blank notepad. What he wrote down was hardly reinventing the wheel.

But the blueprint produced was enough to create stirrings of unrest and dissent amongst clubs for years to come. Relationships built up over many years in the Belgian game were tested.

‘We made a brochure,’ Sablon recalls. It was more of a book, in fact.

‘We had a whole group of people around a table in the technical department and we decided to make a plan for three target groups.

‘First of all was the clubs, secondly the national team and third the coaches of the schools.

‘So we adopted the same vision for all three groups. We went to the clubs and asked them to play a certain way below Under-18 levels.

‘We asked them to play 4-3-3 with wingers and three midfielders and a flat back four. In the old days, it was always a flat back three, so this was brand new to them.

‘It took more than five or six years before everyone could bring themselves to accept it. Because for most of the coaches and the clubs, all they cared about was winning the game. Nothing else.

‘But that was absolutely wrong for the development of all the players. Totally wrong.

‘It wasn’t easy. In the beginning it was terrible. But eventually they began to see it. They went with us because they saw that what we told them worked. It made players better.

‘I knew the coaches over many years. I convinced them that we were serious people.

‘That this was no b*******. We knew what we were doing.’

Destined for glory? Belgium now have a team of stars, many of whom play in the Premier League

Even so, telling Anderlecht and Standard Liege how they should raise their young players and what formation they should play was a thorny, complex issue. Calling in university boffins, Sablon asked the academics to film 1,500 youth games and analyse them.

The conclusion? That winning at all costs was over-rated. In response, the Belgian FA urged five against five games at youth levels, seven against seven for older kids and a delayed introduction to full-size pitches.

At youth international level, promising young players were moved up to the next level as quickly as possible, even when it meant weakening the chances of qualification for European championships.

Yet, in 2007, a youth team featuring Eden Hazard and Christian Benteke made the last four of the European Under-17 championships for the first time in Belgium’s history. The next year, a slightly older group featuring Marouane Fellaini and Vincent Kompany had a good Olympics.




PL stars: Tottenham pair Moussa Dembele (left) and Nacer Chadli (right) are mainstays in the Belgium team






Squad: Marouane Fellaini (left), now of Manchester United, while Thomas Vermaelen (right) plays for Arsenal







Solid: Kompany (left) captains the side, and is helped at the back by Jan Vertonghen (right)

‘It was working,’ adds Sablon. ‘Players like Fellaini, Hazard, (Jan) Vertonghen and (Thomas) Vermaelen were good at 17 or 18.

‘But I have no doubt. What we did with our development system made them better. It made them the players they are now.

‘The clubs looked at the FIFA rankings and saw us moving up. Finally they said: “This works”.’

Unsurprisingly, Sablon’s blueprint has been adopted wholesale by SFA performance director Mark Wotte.

The Dutchman offers no apology for looking at a golden generation of Belgian players containing Kompany, Hazard, Fellaini, Benteke, Vertonghen, Moussa Dembele, Nacer Chadli, Vermaelen and Romelu Lukaku and saying: “This is the way to go”.’

Mark McGhee, Gordon Strachan’s assistant, believes it’s less simple than that. The Belgians have a population of 11 million. They have also benefited from a huge wave of multicultural immigration.

Way to go: Mark Wotte, formerly manager of Southampton, is now using this Belgian bluebrint on Scotland



Tough job: Gordon Strachan (left) helped by Mark McGhee (right) have the job of bringing youngsters through

In Brussels, Europe’s business and political heartland, footballers of African descent were born. Benteke and Kompany are of Congolese parentage, while Fellaini’s background is Moroccan. Yet almost all of the team are born in Belgium.

Sixteen now play for the biggest clubs in the English Premiership. Kompany is Manchester City captain, Fellaini has completed a £27million move to Manchester United, while big-spending Spurs have Vertonghen, Chadli and Dembele in their ranks.

To try to ape this, the SFA have invested £20m in seven performance schools and indoor training centres. Yet the bricks and mortar is the easy part.

Beat this: Alex Witsel is chased by Jamie Mackie of Scotland



Hope? James McArthur (left) and Robert Snodgrass (right) are two of Scotland's most influential players

Sablon tried to change the psychology of a nation. To change the entire footballing culture from a win-at-all-costs mentality.

‘Scotland is in the shadow of England. But you know what? That makes England a target.

‘We compare ourselves in Belgium to the best in the world now. That started with Spain and France.

‘We are not the best in the world — but we are working hard to be there.

‘We didn’t want to be condemned to the role of also-rans any longer. But we didn’t sit around feeling sorry for ourselves.

‘We did what Scotland is trying to do — we went out and we did something about it.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...#ixzz2e3HtZZ00
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Great post... Demonstrates that the missing ingredient for Jamaica is inspired, transformative leadership..... Not lack of money or poor players

Unfortunately it's easier, culturally acceptable and above all cheaper....to wait for the last minute in WCQ to import snow ballers.

JFF please don't forget the name tags at the occasional team meetups

[Sir X]

Why wouldnt the JFF take the Belgian route ? its the commonsense approach !

[Sir X]

Are our High Schools sprint academies ? if so then it could be a vassel to be soccer acadamies , if they arent already ,certain players, play for schools with links to coaches at various clubs , minor league,majour, kasfa etc.

[Bricktop]

And Manning Cup coaches are going to foresake winning for the development of Jamaican football? Let's get real here...

[Bricktop]

Individual sport versus team sport...totally different...

[Don1]

Are our High Schools sprint academies ? if so then it could be a vassel to be soccer acadamies , if they arent already ,certain players, play for schools with links to coaches at various clubs , minor league,majour, kasfa etc.

Mi done outline a workable plan fi dat secondary school level balla lang time

Elements of dat Belgian template cyan easily be adopted throughout the school & yute ball competitions

As Israel Vibration put it....Wi All Gotta Sing the Same Song...Wooooiiiieee

[Karl]

Well we are right back where we started. What possible advantage could vermaen have had joining an academy? He should have stayed in school.

If the more developed powers do not have that confidence in the their school system then......How can we develop an extra curricular activity to a competitive level? Many schools are challenged with finding desks for christake!

I think you have lost your way.
The argument is all about whether or not we should ignore our schools.
That has nothing to do with whether or not we should have academies.

The truth is we must maximize on both.

If I am understanding -
1. The statement (entire last paragraph) on the more developed countries not having confidence in their schools (school system as being vital part of where some development occur process) points to lack of understanding on part schools play and as fact should play in development of our kids.

and...
2. On a completely different matter but underlined in your last sentence but one, is a misunderstanding of the delivery of what is termed extra-curricular activity.

...so specific to extra-curricular activities is the widespread view by most in our society that there is never a need for professional behavioral norms by those who direct and provide the environment (entire gamut of what is meant by 'the environment' within which these activities are encouraged).

These extra-curricular activities grew out of a recognition that the school administrators - policy makers, managers of schools and teachers - were providing for the (continued) development of the 'whole child'...an optimal development of our children.

It was not meant that less than stellar attitudes and professional care - as it relates to social, cognitive, emotional, and educational development as our children are on the road of individual progresses from dependency to increasing autonomy - be delivered. There is no society - (inclusive of our Jamaica society...certainly if not generally talked about it is a part of the discussion in Teachers' Colleges) - that does not recognize that the immediate foregoing is vital to the society.

Extra-curricular activities must be carefully tailored to assist the promotion of optimal development of our children. It is not a 'play-play' 'fool-fool' set of activities. Matters not the activity being undertaken the same top quality of delivery of expert teaching or coaching undertaken in academic disciplines must be the norm.

There is a Jamaica saying - "Not because...".
...maybe while we were attending the schools we passed through those tasked with leading us during times of those extra-curricular activities 'formed the fool' must it continue to be so.

Those 'time-tabled'/scheduled extra-curricular activities were teaching/learning times. Vital periods during which exercises promoting development of the child is reinforced - widen knowledge base, encouragement of practical application of logical sequencing (logical sequencing = think in the widest use of the term...say, words/use of words or say, particular project activity...planning through implementation - examples...Hey, Don1: robotics? - or as occurred at Munro College during my time starting a Chess School team and thinking on how there could become a High School's Chess competition (aside: Mumps outbreak delayed more rapid expansion)...and critical thinking, socializing...team work/play...whatever...) - ....etc., etc. towards that optimal development of our children.

So do not knock "Extra-curricular activities" and think of same as 'goof off time'. It is not.

[Bricktop]

The best must play against/with the best...you cannot achieve that in your model

[Gamma]

I have lost my way?!!!! Hookay Fred!

[Karl]

...and you must have a method of culling "the best" from pool whence they come...

‘We made a brochure,’ Sablon recalls. It was more of a book, in fact.

‘We had a whole group of people around a table in the technical department and we decided to make a plan for three target groups.

‘First of all was the clubs, secondly the national team and third the coaches of the schools.

[Don1]

How to think Long Term ...and WIN.. Winnie tek note

This post by Jangle is THE most valuable contribution on this forum in recent times.

The JFF and all those who foolishly support short term, stop gap, hurry-come-up and above all... FAILED strategies (AKA mass import of mediocre Snow Ballas)...would do well to study this Belgian example and learn how system analysis is performed and how correct fixes to systemic weaknesses can be applied

Unnu know unnu self suh mi naw kall nuh name

No one can say for certain when the tipping point was reached. When Belgian football looked deep into its soul and discovered an empty hollow.

Some say the European Championship of 2000 was the watershed. Co-hosts of the tournament with Holland, Belgian aspirations were high.

They would go on to reach a sixth successive World Cup in 2002, they were a nation to be reckoned with.

Maturity and system-based approach to football (not a gladdis approach ) allows realization that merely reaching a World Cup event is NOT a mission... merely a good result or marker on a larger journey

Focus on the journey...not on the rest stops

But the days of Enzo Scifo and Franky Vercauteren had gone. When Turkey pipped the co-hosts as qualifiers from their first-round group at Euro 2000, there was humiliation. But no real surprise.

Their best young players were heading elsewhere. To France and the Netherlands. The Jupiler pro league was no longer seen as a place for young players to blossom and grow.

Realization that growing organically with local players is all-important

A

t the glass-fronted offices of the Belgian Football Association on the outskirts of Brussels, the technical director, Michel Sablon, saw football moving on and Belgium failing to move with it.

‘Our professional clubs were failing,’ he tells Sportsmail. ‘And the level of football from the national teams was not good enough.

‘We could not compete with the major countries like Spain and France.

‘So, in 2002 we started to look closely at France and had meetings with them twice a year. We did the same with Holland. Sometimes we met with Germany as well and tried to improve what we were doing.

‘At that time we were nowhere. Our Under-17 and Under-19 teams were ranked between 23 and 28 in the world. We really were nowhere. Now? We are top 10.’

It was hardly an overnight journey.

Recognition that with local clubs failing...that's NOT a signal to abandon youths to look for stop gap players....but a time to DOUBLE DOWN on youth development

Sablon, a member of the Belgian coaching team at the World Cup finals in Mexico, Italy and the United States, sat down with a blank notepad. What he wrote down was hardly reinventing the wheel.

But the blueprint produced was enough to create stirrings of unrest and dissent amongst clubs for years to come. Relationships built up over many years in the Belgian game were tested.

‘We made a brochure,’ Sablon recalls. It was more of a book, in fact.

‘We had a whole group of people around a table in the technical department and we decided to make a plan for three target groups.

‘First of all was the clubs, secondly the national team and third the coaches of the schools.

‘So we adopted the same vision for all three groups. We went to the clubs and asked them to play a certain way below Under-18 levels.

‘We asked them to play 4-3-3 with wingers and three midfielders and a flat back four. In the old days, it was always a flat back three, so this was brand new to them.
‘But that was absolutely wrong for the development of all the players. Totally wrong.

Start with blank slate.... examine what has worked in the past and what hasn't.... discard what hasn't worked...and build a winning plan with input from all stakeholders... a kind of Football Contract ..woooiiee

‘It took more than five or six years before everyone could bring themselves to accept it. Because for most of the coaches and the clubs, all they cared about was winning the game. Nothing else.

‘It wasn’t easy. In the beginning it was terrible. But eventually they began to see it. They went with us because they saw that what we told them worked. It made players better.

‘I knew the coaches over many years. I convinced them that we were serious people.

‘That this was no b*******. We knew what we were doing.’

It will take time...so patience & strength are required..
Expect growing pains...but stay the course. Since stakeholders signed on to your plan they will ovastand

Even so, telling Anderlecht and Standard Liege how they should raise their young players and what formation they should play was a thorny, complex issue. Calling in university boffins, Sablon asked the academics to film 1,500 youth games and analyse them.

The conclusion? That winning at all costs was over-rated. In response, the Belgian FA urged five against five games at youth levels, seven against seven for older kids and a delayed introduction to full-size pitches.

Yes winning at all costs IS overrated when you're in a development project... the winning comes when the project is concluded

This is why nonsense like "the best players must be on the pitch at ALL TIMES"... is superficially attractive... but is actually myopic thinking

Lift up your head and think long term

At youth international level, promising young players were moved up to the next level as quickly as possible, even when it meant weakening the chances of qualification for European championships.

Yet, in 2007, a youth team featuring Eden Hazard and Christian Benteke made the last four of the European Under-17 championships for the first time in Belgium’s history. The next year, a slightly older group featuring Marouane Fellaini and Vincent Kompany had a good Olympics.

Measure progress and benchmark steady, improving results over time

‘It was working,’ adds Sablon. ‘Players like Fellaini, Hazard, (Jan) Vertonghen and (Thomas) Vermaelen were good at 17 or 18.

‘But I have no doubt. What we did with our development system made them better. It made them the players they are now.

‘The clubs looked at the FIFA rankings and saw us moving up. Finally they said: “This works”.’

Unsurprisingly, Sablon’s blueprint has been adopted wholesale by SFA performance director Mark Wotte.

The Dutchman offers no apology for looking at a golden generation of Belgian players containing Kompany, Hazard, Fellaini, Benteke, Vertonghen, Moussa Dembele, Nacer Chadli, Vermaelen and Romelu Lukaku and saying: “This is the way to go”.’

If the Fish Head is rotten...so will be the tail

But if the head creates a progressive, nurturing environment for yutes...trusts them... then they shall blossom.

Mark McGhee, Gordon Strachan’s assistant, believes it’s less simple than that. The Belgians have a population of 11 million. They have also benefited from a huge wave of multicultural immigration.

In Brussels, Europe’s business and political heartland, footballers of African descent were born. Benteke and Kompany are of Congolese parentage, while Fellaini’s background is Moroccan. Yet almost all of the team are born in Belgium.

Create our unique winning local model... then outsiders will flock to us to learn and enrich the program
Exactly what has occurred in track

Sixteen now play for the biggest clubs in the English Premiership. Kompany is Manchester City captain, Fellaini has completed a £27million move to Manchester United, while big-spending Spurs have Vertonghen, Chadli and Dembele in their ranks.

Your players will cash in ..

To try to ape this, the SFA have invested £20m in seven performance schools and indoor training centres. Yet the bricks and mortar is the easy part.

Sablon tried to change the psychology of a nation. To change the entire footballing culture from a win-at-all-costs mentality.

...But it's NOT all about money. It's also about leadership, strength & vision to change bankrupt mindsets

[Jangle]

It is not brain surgery.


How German football reinvented itself

By Thomas Dahlhaus BBC World Service, Frankfurt Comments (183)
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL

• Venue: Wembley
• Date: Saturday 25 May
• Kick-off: 19:45 BST

Coverage: Commentary on BBC Radio 5 live; live text commentary on BBC Sport website, mobiles & app

The first all-German Champions League final on Saturday will be testament to the Bundesliga's emphasis on youth and home-grown talent.
Almost the entire German national team will be on display when Bayern Munich take on Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, most of them having come through the two clubs' academies.
It's a scenario that most Premier League sides could only dream of. To understand how this has come about, we need to go back to 2000. That was the year Germany were humiliated at the European Championship, finishing bottom of their group without winning a game.
An ageing side was found badly wanting and Dutch newspapers, somewhat gleefully, wrote of Germany as a "dying football nation". Germany's Under-21 and Under-19 sides were also struggling at the time, because of a talent shortage and the fact their players lacked competitive match experience with their clubs.
In short, the future of German football looked bleak, forcing the national association, clubs and fans into some profound soul-searching.
What followed was a fundamental change of emphasis, with youth development now at the fore. And the new measures that were implemented soon began to pay off, with the number of under 23-year-olds regularly featuring in first teams in the Bundesliga jumping from 6% in 2000 to 15% in 2010.
Youth team to first team


These likely Champions League final starters played youth-team football for their current club:

• Bayern Munich: Philippe Lahm (above), Thomas Mueller, Bastian Schweinsteiger, David Alaba
• Borussia Dortmund: Marcel Schmelzer, Marco Reus

* Dortmund's Mats Hummels came through the youth set-up at opponents Bayern


A youthful German side finished third at the 2006 World Cup and matched that result in 2010, easily beating England along the way. At each of these World Cups, Fifa's young player of the tournament was a German - Lukas Podolski in 2006 and Thomas Mueller in 2010.
German under-age sides also regained their competitiveness, with the Under-21, Under-19 and Under-17 teams all winning European titles. What's more, the players were now very different to those of old, displaying technical ability, skill and nimbleness, rather than mere physical strength and athleticism.
To get a better idea of what has been done, I spent an afternoon at the youth academy of Eintracht Frankfurt earlier this week.
After slipping into the second division, Frankfurt regained their place in the top flight last year and have now qualified for next season's Europa League. An emphasis on home-grown talent has been at the heart of the resurgence.
Their latest hope is attacking midfielder Marc Stendera, who made the jump from the club's academy to the first team this season at the age of 17.
Germany international Marko Marin, now at Chelsea, is the best-known graduate of Frankfurt's academy and encapsulates the type of player they are now trying to produce. Armin Kraaz, who has headed up the academy for the last 10 years, describes Marin as "small and technically gifted and a perfect example of what has changed in German football".
Eintracht Frankfurt's revamped youth academy

The academy was completed in 2010 at a cost of 15m euros (£12.8m) and offers much-improved facilities and high-quality coaching to youngsters.
"Training has changed tremendously," says Kraaz. "When I was a player at Frankfurt in the 1980s, training often involved lots of running and building up stamina. Now the emphasis is on skill and technique and almost all the exercises revolve around the ball.
"Our scouts go out to look for the most naturally gifted nine and 10-year-olds, regardless of their physical attributes. When they arrive at the academy, work in the gym to build up strength doesn't usually begin until they're at least 16."
The Bundesliga clubs now invest around 100m euros (£85m) per year in their academies, and there is close scrutiny from the German Football Association (DFB).
Every three years, the DFB's inspectors arrive at each Bundesliga club to put their academies to the test. There are about 800 questions to be answered, covering everything from training to how the youngsters are supported at school.
At 17, Marc Stendera is one of Eintracht Frankfurt's home-grown stars

The clubs have to prove they can run their academies well before being able to obtain a licence from the DFB and Deutsche Fussball League (DFL). They must also have sound finances and the liquidity to cover their spending plans.
Heribert Bruchhagen - who has been chairman of Eintracht Frankfurt for the past decade and was previously chief executive of the DFL - explains: "Before every season, each club has to produce a detailed breakdown of expected revenue, from sponsorship deals to TV and ticketing, as well as the projected spending."
There is a brief window for amendments to be made, but if a club fails to meet the requirements laid out, their licence will not be renewed.
The other key element of self-regulation is the "50+1 rule". This requires that the majority of each club must be owned by its members, the supporters.
"To sell to an investor would be against the spirit of the club and neither the management nor the fans would stand for it," says Bruchhagen. "We'd rather suffer painful results, relegation even, than sell out."
Every time there has been a vote about whether to relax the rule, there has always been a clear consensus among the 36 clubs making up the top two tiers to keep things exactly as they are.
And what about the fans? Wouldn't they like to see more money coming in, especially now that Frankfurt are to compete in Europe as well as the Bundesliga?
Johannes Rapp is from the Frankfurt fans' group Nordwestkurve and has been a season ticket holder for 10 years.
Find out more

Thomas Dahlhaus's report featured on the BBC World Service programme Newsday

• Listen back via BBC iPlayer Radio
• Browse the World Service podcast archive
• More from the BBC World Service

"As a member I pay a slightly reduced rate of 104 euros (£89) which gives me access to all 17 home games of the season," he says.
This also includes preferential access to non-Bundesliga games and free public transport to and from the venue.
Even the standard season ticket price of 120 euros (£102) is extremely modest in comparison to the rest of Europe. Frankfurt offer 10,000 of those tickets, plus another 20,000 season tickets in seating areas, which cost just under 300 euros (£257).
In 2012-13, the Bundesliga confirmed its position as the best-attended league in the world, with an average crowd of more than 42,000. Frankfurt themselves had an average home attendance of 40,000 even when they were in the second division last season.
German football fans are very well organised when it comes to making their voices heard about ticket prices. In the season just ended, there were several examples of fans joining forces to defend their interests.
Frankfurt seem to encapsulate the way German football has changed since 2000. There has been an emphasis on youth, and on technical ability over brute force. The supporters are at the heart of the club, and it is being run with financial frugality.
The best representation of all will come on Saturday, though, when two sides largely drawn from the academies of Bayern and Dortmund battle it out at Wembley.

[Bricktop]

(The JFF) would do well to study this Belgian example and learn how system analysis is performed and how correct fixes to systemic weaknesses can be applied

As would you Don2...as would you...

Sablon, a member of the Belgian coaching team at the World Cup finals in Mexico, Italy and the United States, sat down with a blank notepad. What he wrote down was hardly reinventing the wheel.

Woiee mi academy system...

[Jangle]

Spanish football reaping the rewards of a perfect plan

Jun 26, 2013 56


The future is red: Spain celebrate after beating Italy 4-2 to win the European Under-21 Championships.

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Spain’s stranglehold on international football shows little sign of weakening. The senior side have strolled into the semi-finals of the Confederations Cup, the Under-21s won their European Championships and the U-20s have been impressive at their own World Cup.
But what is the reason behind such sustained domination? The simple explanation is that Spain has been fortunate to benefit from a Golden Generation. Colossal talents like Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, Xabi Alonso, David Villa and Carles Puyol all coming along at roughly the same time, it could be argued, has been little more than a happy coincidence, giving Spain the foundation of a world-beating team.
However, the fact that another batch of exceptional young players is now making its mark suggests the truth is more complex.
Although national team coaches Luis Aragones (2004-8) and Vicente Del Bosque (2008-present) deserve credit for making the most of the resources at their disposal, ultimately the chief architects of Spain’s success have been their employers, the Spanish [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]Football[/COLOR][/COLOR] Federation (RFEF), for creating the environment which allowed those players to emerge in the first place.
Golden generations don’t simply happen. World-class players are made, not born, and Spain’s dominance is a direct result of the RFEF’s game-changing youth coaching system that has been in place across the country throughout the last two decades.
Coaching young players is a laborious and long-winded process that requires a great deal of patience. It’s impossible to implement a youth development system and expect world-class players to simply emerge within a couple of years.
Plan of action
However well-designed and well-intentioned a youth coaching programme might be, to become successful it requires youngsters to spend their entire childhood immersed in its values on a daily basis.
The RFEF’s great triumph has been devising and implementing a nationwide system that is consistently applied and has been in place for a number of years, giving the programme the time that it needs to become successful.
One way of understanding success is to analyse failure. In England, for example, youth development is mortally hindered by a vacuum of leadership created by the ongoing administrative power struggle between the [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]Football[/COLOR][/COLOR] Association and the Premier League, creating an absence of overall vision as the political landscape changes every couple of years.
As a result, English football is now producing its worst crop of young players in living memory. In Spain, the reverse is true. With the continuity provided by Angel Maria Villar’s 25-year stint as the president of the federation, the country’s young footballers have benefitted from a development programme that is rigorously applied from Vigo to Malaga and everywhere in between.
Success lies in coaching
Of course, the programme has to be a good one as well as a consistent one. Here, too, Spain have been ahead of the game by focusing on coach development. The country boasts a greater ratio of qualified coaches to players than any other major European country, providing the expertise required to train and educate youngsters effectively.
The system can be broken down into three distinct phases of development.
In younger age groups, the emphasis is firmly on individual technique. Competitive games are rarely played and ‘winning’ is an alien concept – the only focus is continual repetition of technical exercises until the ability to control, dribble and pass the ball bec-ome internalised for life.
In the second phase, players develop their game understanding with the introduction of aspects such as positional play and team structure.
And finally, from 14 onwards, the already-learned attributes of technical ability and game understanding are blended together in the pursuit of winning.
Spanish football’s success, then, is relatively simple: highly-trained coaches follow a consistent national programme which teaches young players firstly how to be technically adept, and then how to use their skills to win matches.
The question is: why doesn’t every (insert Jamaica) other country do the same?