New facility vital - Pearce

06 December 2011 09:16

Stuart Pearce thinks the FA's new St George's Park facility will prove to be a vital part of England's quest to end their 45-year wait to win a major international competition.

Eight years after plans were announced for a permanent base for the England team, building at the National Football Centre, known as St George's Park, is now close to completion and the national team will be based there during the qualification period for the next World Cup.

"I think St George's Park could be the one single thing that could push us on, possibly for the next 100 years. It's that exciting a project," Pearce said.

With 12 pitches and cutting edge sports medicine and sports science facilities, the 330-acre site at Burton-upon-Trent will be England's answer to the Clairefontaine centre credited with bringing through France's best players over the last two decades.

Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho have said in the past that they were astounded to hear that England, a team who have not lifted the World Cup since 1966, does not have a national centre, unlike almost all the other major footballing nations in Europe.

Pearce, who tasted semi-final defeat as a player at Italia '90 and Euro '96, thinks St George's Park could make a huge difference in the country's push for success on the international stage.

He added: "When I first came in to the organisation, I had problems. The analysis department was based in Liverpool, the conditioning department was based somewhere else, and as a manager you wouldn't accept that at any club so why should we accept it at the elite end of football in this country?

"To have everyone under the same roof, to be able to invite young players in for coaching weekends, to be able to support our players and managers within this country to develop all under one roof, one venue, will be absolutely outstanding."

Pearce, England's Under-21 manager, has ruled himself out of the running to take over from Fabio Capello as Three Lions boss when the Italian's tenure comes to an end next summer.

The FA would prefer to install a home-grown manager, but other than Harry Redknapp and Roy Hodgson, there are no other real contenders for the position.

Source: PA