FA head of elite development Gareth Southgate has his work cut out trying to change the future for football

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A couple of years ago, the junior football club with which I was associated took an idea to our local youth league. It was that instead of seven-year-olds playing in seven-a-side matches with referees, baying parents on the touchline and results collated into league position, clubs should organise weekly friendlies at four-a-side.

The philosophy behind it was that without the pressure of parentally-imposed competitive structures, children might more enjoy their football, and, with many more touches of the ball available with fewer players on the pitch, develop their skills. There was nothing non-competitive about it: every child would want to win every game they played.

It would be immodest to claim it as our idea. That’s what they do in Holland, in Spain, in Germany, countries that seem to have a reasonable idea how to produce footballers. But when the proposal was raised, the wannabe Fergusons who made up the committee, those managing their little league sides in neatly pressed tracksuits with their initials on the chest, snorted derision.

“Kids want to see their name at the top of the league in the paper,” one said, to much agreement. In fact, most of the committee members thought it would be a better idea to institute competitive leagues for even younger age groups: “How else will they learn how to win?” When it came to a vote, ours was the only one cast in favour. We lost 23-1.

That, in microcosm, was English football : a latticework of self-interest. Never mind the wider good, what about my medals? And I thought of the episode when I heard that Gareth Southgate, the Football Association’s newly-appointed head of elite development, is touring the country, trying to persuade leagues to adopt a policy of small-sided games for young children. Good luck with that, I suggested when I met up with him earlier this week at the launch of the FA’s coaching licence scheme. There are oil tanker captains with easier jobs turning around their ships.

“Actually, there are signs of encouragement,” he said. “I meet lots of young coaches out there who are forward thinking. Yes, there are others set in their ways, but there’s an acknowledgment we have to catch up with the rest of the world. And to do that, one thing is for sure: we can’t carry on with what we’ve been doing.”

Southgate’s task is not a minor one: it is to create a system which nurtures skill. Presently, among Englishmen aged 18 to 25, only a handful demonstrate ball-playing ability to match their European contemporaries. Actually, it is probably only Jack Wilshere who can hold his head up in international company. It is not much better below that: England’s Under-17s were this week evicted from the World Cup by – who else? – Germany.

Partly the issue lies with the Premier League academies, whose processes are under review. But in many ways the problems have been entrenched before young players arrive at elite clubs.

“The under-17s are at the end of the cycle,” Southgate said. “We need to concentrate right at the start of the process. There are so many steps along the way, there’s no scientific path. But I know this: if we don’t give them the right skill base from five until 10 [years of age] it won’t be there whatever you do thereafter.”

In order to do that, Southgate needs to do nothing less than effect an entire change of culture. Through a programme of coach education, he needs to persuade the self-interested parents and junior officials, vicariously living through their offspring, that they are not serving the best interest of the child. He needs to make things fun, with the emphasis on the development of skill. He needs, in short, to reverse the adultification of junior football.

“Parents and coaches have to understand that their child’s enjoyment, what they can learn from the game as people, in terms of team work, defeat and victory, is more important than anything,” he said.

“I do think we have a major cultural issue. We need to end the way in which the little kid is berated for losing the ball on the edge of the area, or the kid is applauded for hoofing it off the pitch.

“Until we alter that mindset then we’ve got a tough task if we want to produce skilful players. None of this will guarantee us a World Cup-winning team. But I’m dead certain that if we don’t change we’ll never have one.”

And as to the critique that the methodology he endorses promotes non-competitiveness, Southgate has a pertinent rebuttal.

“Look at the Williams sisters, they were brought up in an environment of positive reinforcement of hugs and love, they weren’t allowed to play in tournaments until they were 14. And no one could say they lack the will to win,” he said.

“We are trying to put in place ways to create an environment in which every kid – elite or not – can realise their potential within the game. To make football better for every child who plays it. If we don’t achieve anything else, that’s a worthwhile thing to do.”

Listening to Southgate it occurs to me that the FA seems to have done something unusual: made the right appointment. Only time will tell if anyone is prepared to listen to him.