St George's Park National Football Centre
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St George's Park (SGP) is the English
Football Association A football association, also known as a football federation, soccer federation, or soccer association, is a governing body for association football. Many of them are members of the sport's regional bodies such as UEFA and CONMEBOL and the world gov ...
's national football centre (NFC) built on a site at
Burton upon Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...
,
Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...
. The centre was officially opened by the
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and Duchess of Cambridge on 9 October 2012. The purpose of the centre is to be the base for all coaching and development work undertaken by the FA, and to be the training and preparation ground for all 28 of the England national football teams at the same time, including disability,
futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...
and those who compete in
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and
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competitions such as: * Men's Senior, U-21, U-20, U-19 and U-17. * Women's Senior, U-21, U-19 and U-17.


History

Originally part of Needwood Forest, the hunting grounds were developed by the
Berkeley family The Berkeley family is an English family. It is one of five families in Britain that can trace its patrilineal descent back to an Anglo-Saxon ancestor (the other four being the Arden family, the Swinton family, the Wentworth family, and the ...
in the 13th century. After passing into the hands of the crown, in the 1700s the lease again became owned by private individuals. Passing to the Bass family in 1850, the country house was redeveloped in the 1870s, after which an extensive
horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...
stud was developed. After the death of Sir William Bass, 2nd Baronet in 1952, the estate was sold off and the house demolished.


Purchase and planning

Before the proposed development, the FA had two streams of development facilities: *
Lilleshall Hall Lilleshall Hall is a large former country house and estate in the fields of Lilleshall, Shropshire, England. It is run by Serco Leisure Operating Ltd on behalf of Sport England as one of three National Sports Centres, alongside Bisham Abbey ...
had provided coaching for England's best young players, but had been superseded from both a facility and commercial viewpoint by numerous youth academies opened by various football clubs *
Bisham Abbey Bisham Abbey is a Grade I listed manor house at Bisham in the English county of Berkshire. The name is taken from the now lost monastery which once stood alongside. This original Bisham Abbey was previously named Bisham Priory, and was the t ...
is a multi-sport complex which the FA had used for preparing the national team for matches. The FA wanted a purpose-built, state-of-the-art complex reserved solely for football. Following research by FA technical director Howard Wilkinson, the FA bought the site for £2m in 2001 from the Forte Hotels division of Granada Leisure plc. Having researched all existing National Football Centres, Wilkinson's project was based on the French system located at Clairefontaine near
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, which nurtured the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship winners. It would provide the base for Wilkinson and the FA coaching staff to look for and develop the future generations of England stars. The centre's facilities would include 14 pitches, and provide facilities and headquarters from national teams from the age of 14 upwards. Following the departure of FA
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Adam Crozier, the FA reviewed their plans in November 2002. Due to escalating costs at
Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...
, the FA were expected to place an additional £100m into that project. On review, the costs of the national football centre were also revised upwards to £80m. As a result, although the plans were approved, the deadline was relaxed to allow for the difficult financing circumstances. In 2003 it was decided to mothball the project; in 2004 a proposal to drop the project was delayed until spring 2005. In September 2006 the FA board agreed not to invest any further funds into the site until a decision was made on how to proceed, with all options from a sale, to development with partners, open to discussion. Pitches had already been laid, but construction work on the outbuildings and dressing rooms had not started. In early 2008 the plans were resurrected, with Trevor Brooking calling for the project to be finished by 2010, stating that without a national football centre "the England coach's job will get that much harder." In 2010 Sam Wallace, a football journalist for ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' wrote: "The problem for the FA is that as long as it sits there unfinished, Burton is a stick which the FA's critics use to beat it."


Design and facilities

After the project was finally approved in 2008, SGP was designed by Red Box Design Group, who also designed the Sunderland Aquatic Centre, Sunderland Football Club's Academy of Light and
Durham County Cricket Club Durham County Cricket Club (rebranded as Durham Cricket in February 2019) is one of eighteen first-class cricket, first-class county cricket, county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the Historic c ...
's Riverside Ground. The centre has 12 world-class training pitches, with both grass and artificial surfaces, one of which is an exact replica of the surface used at
Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...
, and a full-sized indoor pitch. It also has state-of-the-art hydrotherapy suites, biomechanics and training gyms, video analysis amenities, educational and coaching suites and medical and sport science facilities. It was built by Bowmer + Kirkland and completed in 2012. File:St. George's indoor pitch 2015-01-24.jpg, Indoor pitch File:St george's park July 2012 Hydrotherapy Suite.jpg, Hydrotherapy suite File:St george's park July 2012 Courtyard.jpg, Hilton at St. George’s Park


Sponsorship

In September 2012 it was announced that SGP would be sponsored by Nike as part of a new deal with the England team starting in 2013.


Use

The project's chairman, David Sheepshanks, said: "Our aim is to make St George's Park a sporting destination of choice for coaches, players, administrators and officials". The intention is that it will be the training base for 24 England teams. It will act as the focal point for the FA's coaching and player development work. The national football centre will also include offices for the FA's technical experts and accommodation for 300 and sports science and medicine facilities. The
League Managers Association The League Managers Association (LMA) is the trade union for Premier League, EFL and national team managers in English association football. The LMA awards the LMA Manager of the Year award annually. History The union was founded in 1919 as ...
committed itself to making the new centre their future headquarters. The
England national rugby union team The England national rugby union team represents the Rugby Football Union (RFU) in international rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France national rugby union team, France, Ireland national rugby union team, ...
trained there in October 2012 and January 2021. Former
European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...
winners Steaua Bucharest used the facilities of the St George's Park for their pre-season 2013–14 training camp. Galatasaray and AS Monaco have also used it In March 2014 US NASL team
Minnesota United FC Minnesota United Football Club, often shortened to MNUFC, is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the W ...
trained at the facility. The
England national rugby league team The England national rugby league team represents England in international rugby league since the first international match in 1904. It is controlled by the Rugby Football League (RFL), the governing body for rugby league in England, and part ...
has also trained there in May 2015.
FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...
trained there in July 2014 and 2016. In 2018 it hosted five matches in the group stages of the European Under-17 Championships. It also hosted a
Rugby Sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...
tournament between Great Britain, Ireland and the United States of America, as a warmup for the Rugby Sevens tournament at the 2020 Olympics.
Jilly Cooper Dame Jilly Cooper, (born Jill Sallitt; 21 February 1937) is an English author. She began her career as a journalist and wrote numerous works of non-fiction before writing several romance novels, the first of which appeared in 1975. Cooper is ...
, novelist, visited the centre as part of her research for her 2023 novel '' Tackle!''


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint George's Park National Football Centre 2012 establishments in England The Football Association Football academies in England Football in Staffordshire Buildings and structures in Burton upon Trent Football training grounds in England Sport in Burton upon Trent Sports venues completed in 2012 National football academies