Paul Bracewell Unviels New Football Foundation Funded Site at Blyth
Former Newcastle and Sunderland midfielder Paul Bracewell spoke passionately about the importance of keeping kids active and playing sportwhatever the weather as he opened a new floodlit third-generation (3G) artificial grass pitch in Blyth this week.
The main beneficiaries of the new facility, which was funded with the help of a £131,420 grant from The Football Foundation, will be pupils from at Blyth School Community College, and youth teams from local clubs Blyth Spartans, Blyth Rangers and Blyth Town. The club's senior teams will also occasionally train there.
Over 2100 people will use the site every week, with the number of teams increasing from 56 to 76 as part of a five-year Football Development Plan.
Bracewell, who also played for Everton, Stoke and Fulham, reflected on how facilities have improved beyond recognition since the early days of his career.
"When I was young, a lot of games would be called off because of waterlogged pitches, or with them being frozen or too hard," he said.
"Now I'm a parent, I have brought my son up playing grassroots football. So, in terms of having facilities like this, they can be used 52 weeks of the year, which is fantastic and so important.
"Kids will improve technically on a surface like this, just because they are guaranteed playing time every week."
He added: "There's been a lot of research, and what matters is kids getting as many touches of the ball as possible. In the past we have seen 10-year-olds playing on a full-sized grass pitch, running around but never getting a kick.
"At the end of the day it just comes down to kids getting lots of touches and enjoying it as much as possible, so the size of the pitch and quality of it is the most important thing."
Because of injury, the talented midfielder only won three caps for England. But at youth level, Bracewell passionately believes the emphasis should just be on increasing participation.
"Not everyone is going to be a professional footballer, never mind being an international footballer, but what they will get here is the experience of playing regularly, exercise and just getting out in the fresh air.
"Plus technically they will improve because they are getting many more touches of the ball, not trying to play on some waterlogged pitch somewhere else.
"The ones who do turn out to be good enough will find their own way later on; the ones who don't will still enjoy it. That's the whole point of these facilities."
The Football Foundation is funded by the Premier League, The FA and Government via Sport England. Launched in 2000, it is the nation's largest sporting charity and has awarded around 8000 grants worth more than £420million towards improving grassroots sport, which it has used to attract additional partnership funding of over £520million.
Bracewell, whose own company Complete Football also provides training facilities for youngsters, added: "A lot of people have worked very hard to get this, and I'm just delighted to come along and open it.
"It's a community facility and kids can use it, but at other times it's fully booked as well. That's great because people talk about obesity and what can kids do? Well, we can get them off the streets and coming in to use facilities like this.
"With my company, Complete Football, we have 300 girls who come and play on a Saturday morning and they play on this type of surface. The games are always on, so they get a full programme.
"Prior to us, they only played eight games which is horrendous really. Now, just like here in Blyth, it's a safe environment at a fantastic facility and they are guaranteed to actually play and get plenty of time out on the pitch, which is the most important thing."
Bracewell, who won the League and European Cup Winners' Cup with Everton, added: "These kids today couldn't wait to get in and running round on the pitch. That's the experience we want to give them, whether it's at school or on a Saturday or Sunday; get them playing and enjoying running around.
"From our own centre and then from facilities like this, the feedback we get from coaches and scouts is that these facilities encourage kids to have lots of touches, they encourage them to develop a good first touch.
"And if you start, at an early age, with that mentality then it will help them improve much more - as individuals and as teams - as they grow up."
