Clark calls for more grassroots funding and facilities
- Mick Clark, secretary for the Russell Foster Youth Leagues, condemns agents’ fees and a lack of education -
It was revealed in 2011 that County Durham has produced more English-born Premier League players than anywhere else in the league’s then 19-year history, with Tyne & Wear and Northumberland coming fifth and eighth respectively. Peter Beardsley, Alan Shearer, Bryan Robson, Chris Waddle and Paul Gascoigne have gone on to become global names, thanks to their upbringing in the footballing hotbed of the North East. In trying to discover why the region has stopped producing such talents, it only felt natural to visit the place where many of these names learnt their trade.
In 1975, local businessman Russell Foster funded a small eight-team, under-13 league. Little did he know that 39 years later – thanks to his sole sponsorship – the Russell Foster Youth Leagues (RFYL) are now the UK’s biggest of its kind, with 434 teams competing in 37 divisions, ranging from under-nine to under-18 levels. Star alumni includes Jordan Henderson, Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing, Adam Johnson and Michael Carrick. Mick Clark, the leagues’ secretary, joined Foster at the very beginning and has remained loyal ever since.
“Russell’s been absolutely brilliant – we haven’t had a lot of people standing in a queue to help develop our facilities. We took up the role of producing competitive football, but on a Sunday so it didn’t interfere with schools”, Clark remembers. “We only started with eight teams for the first two years. Once it became more known, the FA got involved and introduced Mini Soccer. Now the latest idea is nine versus nine.” However, more and more kids are being swept up by multi-million Premier League academies and they do interfere with schools – many forbid their prodigies from risking injury with school football. This angers Clark. “If a lad has played from seven years old but is then told he can’t play with his mates, it doesn’t help. You’ll get more enjoyment with anything when it’s with friends.”
Yet, even when youth players dedicate themselves to developing, the pressures of the Premier League mean they’ll rarely get a chance to break the glass ceiling. Only a lucky few get that chance – the world-beating wonderkids. As for the rest, they’ll either drop to lower league football or become disillusioned and give up altogether. Years of neglecting education to focus on football backfires because they’ve not been given a safety net by academies. “Where’s the education?” asks Clark. “The failure rate is far too high for kids in this country, so, if they’re not going to make it, they need something else to fall back on.”
This is particularly true in the North East, where Newcastle United and Sunderland look everywhere else for new players. Of the 19 players signed by Sunderland last season, only two were English – Altrincham’s Duncan Watmore and Reading-born Scottish international Liam Bridcutt. James Tavernier is the latest highly-rated youth prospect to be sold on by the Magpies, with Shane Ferguson and Adam Campbell also doomed to fail as a result of their various fruitless loan spells. Towards the end of last season, Alan Pardew seemingly had faith in Paul Dummett and gave him a chance in the first team, but he has competition from Massadio Haidara and Davide Santon.
Haidara is rated more highly in the race to be Santon’s understudy, as even back-up players are imported from abroad. Club officials have publicly spoken of Newcastle’s desire for a French legion, something that has seemingly moved to Holland with the signings of Siem De Jong and Daryl Janmaat. For them, foreign players are far more value for money than paying the ‘English premium’ on domestic ones. That money saved could be invested in state-of-the-art academy facilities, but Newcastle took several attempts to finally gain Category One status, which they achieved in 2013. Or maybe they could pump money into grassroots football – how can they expect Clark to produce another Gascoigne or Carroll without financial support?
“That’s a bone of contention with me because, when they bring foreign players into this country, one of the biggest receivers is the agents. So they’re prepared to pay agents’ fees but they don’t put money into grassroots, where the players came from. It’s not fair.” He continued: “The agent hasn’t made him a player, so why is he receiving megabucks when there are guys who have been out in all weathers, in all conditions, on mediocre pitches producing the talent?” Redby Boys only received two club mugs for Paul Robinson's 1998 transfer from Darlington to Newcastle United.
Another problem for Clark and those at the RFYL is the pressure put on children to become footballers by parents who want to be rich. “Parents are sometimes blinkered. Kids might not even want to play football but Little Johnny can kick a ball and he’s going to be a professional footballer, making millions before he’s 18.” Many desperately want to live their dreams through their son, convinced it’s what he really wants. Some will watch youth games from pitchside - shouting, criticising and turning their kids away from the game.
So, from Clark’s point of view, is the talent still there? “I think so. When our teams go away to tournaments, the success rate is phenomenal. They go to Germany, Holland and all over Europe.” The new National Football Centre in Burton should improve things, although their superb facilities aren’t exactly widespread. In fact, despite the £1.8m Russell Foster Football Centre opening in 2011, there is a severe lack of 3G pitches. In the future, Clark hopes to rectify this problem.
“The pitches are superb, no doubt about it, but we need more”, he said. “That’s not being greedy; it’s just that we haven’t got a 3G surface here, only grass. There’s only two in Sunderland, so we go as far as Durham, Gateshead and South Shields, which is a lot when taking so many players and staff 13 or 14 miles. We have to close down in winter to keep the pitches in a decent condition, so we want alternative grass that gives us something to train on irrespective of the weather.”
Germany’s recent World Cup triumph is testament to their FA’s hard work in totally reforming their national youth development structure. Embarrassment at Euro 2000 forced them to take a long, hard look at themselves and overhaul everything. Now they have arguably the most desirable production line of talent in the world. Clark believes the English FA needs “to look at facilities, coaches, coaching methods and education” before they even think about similar success in the future. “The biggest problem is that we don’t have anywhere near the standard of facilities that other countries have. I’ve been to France, Germany and Holland and it’s unbelievable out there.”
And this national problem oozes through to county level, where the Russell Foster Youth Leagues don’t have the funding to produce the next Özil, Reus, Götze or Kroos. “There are definitely players here who will go a long way but we’re nowhere near other countries in regards to development and success. I don’t think kids get a good enough chance.” Maybe we should be looking at the German model. The next stage is to find out what it is.
It was revealed in 2011 that County Durham has produced more English-born Premier League players than anywhere else in the league’s then 19-year history, with Tyne & Wear and Northumberland coming fifth and eighth respectively. Peter Beardsley, Alan Shearer, Bryan Robson, Chris Waddle and Paul Gascoigne have gone on to become global names, thanks to their upbringing in the footballing hotbed of the North East. In trying to discover why the region has stopped producing such talents, it only felt natural to visit the place where many of these names learnt their trade.
In 1975, local businessman Russell Foster funded a small eight-team, under-13 league. Little did he know that 39 years later – thanks to his sole sponsorship – the Russell Foster Youth Leagues (RFYL) are now the UK’s biggest of its kind, with 434 teams competing in 37 divisions, ranging from under-nine to under-18 levels. Star alumni includes Jordan Henderson, Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing, Adam Johnson and Michael Carrick. Mick Clark, the leagues’ secretary, joined Foster at the very beginning and has remained loyal ever since.
“Russell’s been absolutely brilliant – we haven’t had a lot of people standing in a queue to help develop our facilities. We took up the role of producing competitive football, but on a Sunday so it didn’t interfere with schools”, Clark remembers. “We only started with eight teams for the first two years. Once it became more known, the FA got involved and introduced Mini Soccer. Now the latest idea is nine versus nine.” However, more and more kids are being swept up by multi-million Premier League academies and they do interfere with schools – many forbid their prodigies from risking injury with school football. This angers Clark. “If a lad has played from seven years old but is then told he can’t play with his mates, it doesn’t help. You’ll get more enjoyment with anything when it’s with friends.”
Yet, even when youth players dedicate themselves to developing, the pressures of the Premier League mean they’ll rarely get a chance to break the glass ceiling. Only a lucky few get that chance – the world-beating wonderkids. As for the rest, they’ll either drop to lower league football or become disillusioned and give up altogether. Years of neglecting education to focus on football backfires because they’ve not been given a safety net by academies. “Where’s the education?” asks Clark. “The failure rate is far too high for kids in this country, so, if they’re not going to make it, they need something else to fall back on.”
This is particularly true in the North East, where Newcastle United and Sunderland look everywhere else for new players. Of the 19 players signed by Sunderland last season, only two were English – Altrincham’s Duncan Watmore and Reading-born Scottish international Liam Bridcutt. James Tavernier is the latest highly-rated youth prospect to be sold on by the Magpies, with Shane Ferguson and Adam Campbell also doomed to fail as a result of their various fruitless loan spells. Towards the end of last season, Alan Pardew seemingly had faith in Paul Dummett and gave him a chance in the first team, but he has competition from Massadio Haidara and Davide Santon.
Haidara is rated more highly in the race to be Santon’s understudy, as even back-up players are imported from abroad. Club officials have publicly spoken of Newcastle’s desire for a French legion, something that has seemingly moved to Holland with the signings of Siem De Jong and Daryl Janmaat. For them, foreign players are far more value for money than paying the ‘English premium’ on domestic ones. That money saved could be invested in state-of-the-art academy facilities, but Newcastle took several attempts to finally gain Category One status, which they achieved in 2013. Or maybe they could pump money into grassroots football – how can they expect Clark to produce another Gascoigne or Carroll without financial support?
“That’s a bone of contention with me because, when they bring foreign players into this country, one of the biggest receivers is the agents. So they’re prepared to pay agents’ fees but they don’t put money into grassroots, where the players came from. It’s not fair.” He continued: “The agent hasn’t made him a player, so why is he receiving megabucks when there are guys who have been out in all weathers, in all conditions, on mediocre pitches producing the talent?” Redby Boys only received two club mugs for Paul Robinson's 1998 transfer from Darlington to Newcastle United.
Another problem for Clark and those at the RFYL is the pressure put on children to become footballers by parents who want to be rich. “Parents are sometimes blinkered. Kids might not even want to play football but Little Johnny can kick a ball and he’s going to be a professional footballer, making millions before he’s 18.” Many desperately want to live their dreams through their son, convinced it’s what he really wants. Some will watch youth games from pitchside - shouting, criticising and turning their kids away from the game.
So, from Clark’s point of view, is the talent still there? “I think so. When our teams go away to tournaments, the success rate is phenomenal. They go to Germany, Holland and all over Europe.” The new National Football Centre in Burton should improve things, although their superb facilities aren’t exactly widespread. In fact, despite the £1.8m Russell Foster Football Centre opening in 2011, there is a severe lack of 3G pitches. In the future, Clark hopes to rectify this problem.
“The pitches are superb, no doubt about it, but we need more”, he said. “That’s not being greedy; it’s just that we haven’t got a 3G surface here, only grass. There’s only two in Sunderland, so we go as far as Durham, Gateshead and South Shields, which is a lot when taking so many players and staff 13 or 14 miles. We have to close down in winter to keep the pitches in a decent condition, so we want alternative grass that gives us something to train on irrespective of the weather.”
Germany’s recent World Cup triumph is testament to their FA’s hard work in totally reforming their national youth development structure. Embarrassment at Euro 2000 forced them to take a long, hard look at themselves and overhaul everything. Now they have arguably the most desirable production line of talent in the world. Clark believes the English FA needs “to look at facilities, coaches, coaching methods and education” before they even think about similar success in the future. “The biggest problem is that we don’t have anywhere near the standard of facilities that other countries have. I’ve been to France, Germany and Holland and it’s unbelievable out there.”
And this national problem oozes through to county level, where the Russell Foster Youth Leagues don’t have the funding to produce the next Özil, Reus, Götze or Kroos. “There are definitely players here who will go a long way but we’re nowhere near other countries in regards to development and success. I don’t think kids get a good enough chance.” Maybe we should be looking at the German model. The next stage is to find out what it is.
