How do you develop Football in a lesser country ?

I've followed the earlier rounds of CL/EL from the very first day this season, and have made some interesting observations.

If you remember, Michel Platini (As much of a douche he is) got a lot of stick for introduction of this new CL format, where champions of lesser countries only have to beat each other to make the CL groups and get that massive money, as opposed to before where they'd beat everyone and then BOOM, face Arsenal.
He was accused of being a socialist and the big dogs didn't like him for that. Assigning Euros to Poland/Ukraine also enraged the bastards.

Back to discussion....in this new format, it's easier for champions of let's say Kazakhstan, or Lithuania to make CL groups (that's the catch, Million euros market) than before. Let's say you're the head of FA of one of those countries,....want to grow the game and step up a few notches in the next 2 decades. How would you go around that ?

In the recent years, Iceland has revolutionized their football system. Introducing indoor stadiums for 5-side game, hiring A/B coaches from Germany to work there, and from 2002 to now, Football has replaced handball as the most popular sport among Icelandic teenagers. Their youth team are doing better, and their national team is now is in their highest standing ever. Similarly, their clubs who used to go out to teams of San Marino, etc....are now slowly improving Iceland's ranking in UEFA Coefficients , with Starjnan eliminating Motherwell in the last round of EL, and they just beat Lech Poznan in the first round of the 3rd round tie.

Iceland, despite the economic blow they suffered in 2008, are/were a relatively rich country though. Let's say you're in Kazakhstan or Lithuania. and want to make a 25 year plan to move football a tier or two.

What infrastructural, short/long term goals would you impose?

I've noticed Twitter accounts designated to promote football in Eastern Europe...by providing live league updates, commentary ,highlights/videos to raise awareness in English. They are very interesting to follow IMO. Maybe I'm just a hopeless romantic wanting the hierarchy to be broken, just as I wanted to win the CL with Mansfield down in FIFA Manager Mode 2010....but can a smaller country make a big rise and join the big boys in European footy? How long and how much effort would it take? Do-able ???

Infrastructure doesn't get you very far in football. You can have very nice stadiums, but if you're coached by a buffoon players won't develop the right set of skills to become world class players. Doesn't mean you don't have to invest tons of money, you do, but in know-how.

I would take a look on UEFA's page at the grass roots training in the Netherlands. Very interesting if you're into this kind of stuff.

^ It's amazing how such a small country with little population always produce such high class talent.

It may be something in the Western Europe water.....that's why in my example I used Eastern European nations. True, they are a lot poorer, but I assume it's relative, and setting up grassroots facility and coaching won't cost as much either.

One club getting into the CL hardly develops that country's football, but:

Infrastructure and grass roots development are key. Iceland have apparently embraced this. At the end of the day it's all about the player pool (how many players you have to choose from), the level of coaching and possibilities to train (pitches, in-door stadiums, climate).

Art Morte wrote:One club getting into the CL hardly develops that country's football, but:

Infrastructure and grass roots development are key. Iceland have apparently embraced this. At the end of the day it's all about the player pool (how many players you have to choose from), the level of coaching and possibilities to train (pitches, in-door stadiums, climate).

^ Do you think Finland are making progress in that regards Art? I have been following Finnish NT, and they aren't the punchbags they used to be. What are the top 3 sports for teenagers to go to in Finland?

I've been following Finnish clubs in Europe this season....very disappointing so far. HJK Helsinki had a great chance of making the play-off of CL (which means AT least guaranteeing a EL group stage appearance. First in a long time for a Finnish club), but they conceded a red card and threw away 2-0 lead over APOEL. Hard task to win the tie now in Cyprus in second leg....

When I was in Poland, I asked my mate about why Polish teams and national team is so garbage and underwhelming, seeing quality of some Polish players in other leagues, and the fact that they are neighbour to Germany and Czech..to more elite teams, and he basically put it all down to coaching...and said the FA won't spend to get proper coaches in for our teams and younger ones, hence a lot of players go to waste.

Finland's problem is the climate, I reckon, that about for 30-40% of the year playing football outdoors isn't really an option.

Also that ice-hockey is the number one sport (we're like mini-Canada in our sports, maybe), so a lion's share of the good athletes get into hockey rather than football. In most of football's dominant nations football is the number one sport that attracts the most kids, so it again comes down to the player pool.

I find Uruguay to be an excellent example of how these things go. They have a population even smaller than Finland's (3.3m vs 5.3m). Football is clearly the number one sport over there, the climate is perfect for it, it's supported (coaching & infrastructure) well enough, I guess, and has long traditions in the sport. And they're doing great. Amazingly, really, compared to the small population. So it's really down to the image and popularity of the sport, if those are high, funding and player pool will emerge.

Oh, and btw, I watched the Helsinki FC v APOEL Nicosia game, and yeah, it was all going fine (2-0) until the guy got red carded for his second unnecessary yellow of the game. Wouldn't have happened to a Uruguayan team

It's all about the tradition, look at the Netherlands or Uruguay, they don't have a big population yet they always produce a lot of elite talent.

On the other side, look at Russia, India or China, big population but seem to don't give a shit about football, well Russia seems to be better now, but still.

countries like ghana , nigeria , and cote d'ivoire are doing really fine in that regard if you consider how poor they are.

Can I make an addition that's irrelevant for European football?
I live in South Africa, and, well... Our football is shocking ATM... Just hired a new coach for our NT.

But its not for a lack of talent that things are awful...
We have a population of about 50 mil and a rich footballing culture amongst our poorer population at least.
Football was quite strong back in the day... Won AFCON in 95 and qualified for consecutive WCs. But, our local league is shocking and our FA is ridiculously corrupt.
After the 2010 WC we also have a bunch of relatively big stadiums that are either unused or filled to half-capacity.

Administration is easily our biggest stumbling block. You need officials who are passionate about developing the sport and aren't just involved to make money.
I've got a lot more to say, but don't want to bore you with an irrelevant country's problems

Yet the sport is able to thrive in places where corruption is rampant in the FAs as well: Brazil, Argentina, UEFA, FIFA, etc.

Not that I disagree, Argentina could be a lot more if not for a corrupt FA at least.

Not even comparable to our levels of corruption...
In those countries, if it takes place, the guilty party will be exposed in the media and may even lose his job.
Here in Africa, there is no accountability. Corruption is common practice, accepted as part of the game...

You think there is accountability in FIFA? Platini voted for Qatar and admitted that his son got a job working for a Qatari company, and while there has been some criticism, he has never come close to resigning in spite of all the evidence.

Likewise corruption is an accepted fact in Argentina, and in Brazil the head of their FA that got them the WC had to step down due to corruption claims before the WC so that the scandal wouldn't extend into the actual cup.

Just for clarification of course all these institutions would work better without corruption. I'm just skeptical it's the only reason some FAs fail.

OK.
Maybe it's just because our team is so young comparatively...
Our NT has only officially existed since 91.
Obviously there are also all kinds of social legacies that have carried through since Apartheid as well...

I'd go with the grassroots argument. Also you need managers who know what they're doing all the way from youth to pro level. Honestly, I think footy's rolling forwards atm. 4 or 10 years ago could we imagine Costa Rica in the Quarterfinals in the WC? How did they do it? I'd say, for them at least, it was due to letting their players go play footy in the old Continent at a relatively young age. They were managed by capable managers in Europe and to top it off their manager for this WC really knows his stuff and add to that that they also drew a somewhat accessible opponent for them in Greece. Although, Greece weren't exactly slouches either as they had to beat Cote D'Ivoire to even get there themselves.

Pretty much impossible for managers to do anything effective sometimes though...
The PSL (our league) structures it's fixtures in accordance with the European calendar and doesn't compel clubs to release players to the NT...
So, for example, Gordon Igesund (our recent managerial casualty) couldn't play half of his best players. But he was still given the boot because he couldn't achieve results.
Sometimes it's just a catch 22. The FA needs to provide a strong platform before anything can be done effectively.

Sepi I think we should be putting our heads together on figuring what the hell Canada is doing wrong in the men's side of things and apparently right in the women's side of things.

a country of our wealth and participation at youth levels....we are pretty damn poor at developing players and seem to piss off the half decent ones who then go play for other countries of parents heritage.