Wilkinson condemns FA over Burton delay
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Your support makes all the difference.The Football Association has made a "gross error of judgement" in delaying the construction of the new £80m National Football Centre in Burton-on-Trent, Howard Wilkinson, the FA's former technical director, said yesterday.
The Sunderland manager, who left his position at Soho Square last month to succeed Peter Reid at the Stadium of Light, added that the indefinite mothballing of the project in Staffordshire – which he said was more important than the new Wembley stadium – could damage the development of the game in England at all levels for years to come.
"Before I left the FA, I thought the National Football Centre was the FA's best project," Wilkinson said of the Burton centre, planned to be a state-of-the-art facility with 14 pitches, and advanced sports medicine and sports science centres. "It was progressing on time and on budget and I left behind a very capable team dealing with it.
"I'd been hearing whispers about it for about 10 days but I couldn't believe it [when I heard it was being mothballed]. There's been a gross error of judgement somewhere. More sad is the fact that the current revival we're seeing with young English players and the revival we're seeing in terms of the health of the game are very, very dependent on that national football centre being built."
The FA conceded earlier this week that, in a worst-case scenario, the scheme might have to be scrapped altogether if the ruling body decides it cannot afford it. Other financial commitments, not least the £757m cost of the new Wembley, are proving a drain on resources and there are concerns that the FA has overstretched itself. A final decision on Burton is expected within the next few weeks.
Wilkinson said that that the mothballed project could be "10 times better than Clâirefontaine", a reference to the French national centre outside Paris that has helped develop a generation of French players. "[Burton] is absolutely essential to the development of the game in this country at all levels," he added. "Everybody thinks it's about the international team. It's not. It's about the development from the grass-roots to the Premier League to the international teams.
"Personally, for the good of the game, this is more important than the new Wembley. You can play international football matches anywhere. You don't get something as special as this anywhere. The FA have got to be wrong [to consider scrapping it]."
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