England to open first soccer centre next month

An idea first discussed in 1975 and which has overcome a series of planning delays finally becomes reality next month when England’s £100-million ($155.47-million) national soccer centre opens in the centre of the country. Nearly 50 years after Italy opened its national soccer base at Coverciano near Florence, a quarter of a century after France built its base at Clairefontaine outside Paris, and years after the Ciudad del Futbol centre started near Madrid, England has St George’s Park, its own state-of-the art training centre. The aims are three-fold: to improve the standard of coaching in the English game, to increased the number of coaches at all levels to ensure that England never again needs a foreign coach and to produce English players capable of winning a major title. From gulftoday