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Memorandum of Misunderstanding

Is Sepp Blatter up to any good handing a £315,000 check over to the FA for the St. George’s Park medical centre? Is the grant truly a gesture of goodwill and an indicator of more inclusive and influential times ahead for England in the halls of Fifa? Personally I’m not holding my breath. The FA’s is one of many such awards distributed since 1999 as part of Fifa’s Goal programme, intended primarily to provide financial assistance to developing football nations. When awarded to larger footballing powers however (Germany, Holland and Brazil for example have all been recipients of past awards) Goal grants are widely regarded as political tools intended to buy favours of some sort such as votes in Fifa elections or support for certain policies that Fifa may want to implement.

Sepp Blatter and Fifa’s motives aside, my biggest concerns is that the FA overestimate the significance of the award and start to genuinely believe that England is any more liked or respected than it was at the time of the World Cup bid fiasco in 2010 or Blatter’s re-election festival the following year. We’re not. It will be a long time before England is driving any meaningful decision-making inside Fifa and the last thing the FA should be doing is expending a whole lot of energy working political levers that aren’t actually connected to anything. For example, is the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the FA and Fifa (signed as a condition of the FA receiving the award) going to result in anything positive  for grass roots football in this country or the future performance of the England football team? That’s a big fat NO.  An FA-funded bursary for nine FOREIGN football coaches? Why isn’t this money being used to subsidise course fees for ENGLISH grass root coaches working towards their UEFA coaching licenses who can’t afford the cost of the courses now being offered at St. George’s Park? We’ll have time to educate the world (again) but for now how about focusing on our considerable problems at home?

Don’t let your head be turned by seductive talk of inclusion and influence, Mr. Bernstein. It’s just that, talk. There’ll always be politics and it will look the same tomorrow as it does today. When it comes to English football, however, we’ve never had a better chance to leave today behind. But we must stay true to the original vision. That St. George’s Park was a investment in the English game. That it was intended to bring football home. That it was for us.

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