1st Trip to Wembley - Part 1

The modern football fan is becoming increasingly opinionated as their thirst for football viewing is saturated by more and more television exposure. This provides the 'everyone is an expert' culture in modern football as the benefit of hindsight is common place due to slow mo replays and disciplinary panels. Some modern football fans are becoming irritated by some of the exploits of todays game and now join campaigns against modern football. Whatever their opinion on the state of the game, their club or their favourite players, there is no one body that is more heavily criticised than the Football Association. Some of this criticism may be justified given the amount of money spent and the fact that we are approaching the half a century since England last won anything. I myself am looking a little beyond the current plight and to the future, a future which I believe will be proactive and constructive if not successful.

I really like what the FA are trying to do with coaching at grass roots level. I myself have now completed the Level 1, Youth Module 1 and 2 courses in the first part of my coaching journey and would like to do Level 2 in the near future. I believe that the FA are heading in the right direction and at time of writing this, I am excited to see Greg Dyke is setting up the FA Commission and including the likes of Dario Gradi and Glen Hoddle amongst it. These are people I find fascinating and are intelligent thinkers on the coaching scene. Whether the FA is successful or not will of course depend on funding, coaching opportunities and mostly on the whether or not there are going to be sufficient volunteers putting themselves forward. Young, eager coaches, who are not only willing to give up their spare time but, also harbour the desire to try and makes things better for children at grass roots level. The FA cannot do this alone, but they are certainly providing a platform for wannabe coaches via the local / regional Football Associations and with additional help from sponsors such as McDonald's Kick Start and Tesco Skills. The future is a lot brighter than when I was a child that is for sure but there is still a long way to go. I learnt to play football on the pitches of my local village against other older boys, and whilst I put in hours of dedication every day to becoming better, I never really had the opportunities to be coached or developed to a level that youngsters have today. The children of today may have a lot more opportunities than I did, but in saying that we still need the right people coaching them. This is one of the reasons I give up my time as well as to help provide opportunities for my son. I am not saying I am the right person necessarily but I am firslty volunteering and I am relying on the FA to give me the right tools to work with.

Once I passed my Level 1 qualification in football coaching, I immediately signed up to the FA Licensed Coaches club. Signing up meant that I was committing myself to further and constant learning as I must complete a minimum amount of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) each year. I am keen to do this in order to be the best coach i can be. Being a relatively new current member of the FA Licensed Coaches club for over a year now, I often visit the website and receive regular bulletins from them in order to try to keep abreast of all things new in the coaching circles of the FA. Every month the LCC offer members the opportunity to win tickets for matches and events at Wembley from the Community Shield to the England World Cup Qualifiers. I regularly enter these but until now have not been successful. Last month I was informed that I was indeed a Ballot winner for 2 x tickets to the England v Montenegro World Cup Qualifier on Friday 11th October 2013. I have decided to give my 6 year old Son a life experience and take him. We can share a moment together as it will be my first visit to the home of English football too (well being a Sunderland supporter you don't get many opportunities). I am looking forward to it and it is an important Match for England. I will try to write about the experience in Part 2

C'MON ENGLAND !