The State of English Football

England have a manager who knows what he is doing, players who aren't afraid, and matches won that are crucial. So is this the renaissance of English football? All of a sudden the same old players seem young, keen and enthusiastic. Now it seems the "problem" is not the national team, but the stadium that they play in. The main problem being at the moment, we don't have one. The complications are endless - how big should it be, how much should it cost, where will it be, will it just be for football, will it have a running track, will the crowd be close enough to the action... just a few "dilemmas" facing the FA. But I fail to see their problem. When Wales, whose only famous player appears to be Ryan Giggs, can build a brilliant national stadium without anybody even noticing until it was finished, why can't England do the same? The problem with the English is that it has to be the best. It has to be the most expensive there is. And everybody has to agree. In Wales, I'm sure there were problems with the Millenium Stadium, but they were sorted out. It seems with our own national stadium, all we are doing is going backwards. It also has to be admitted that the England Football "Roadshow" idea of touring the country has been a successful idea, but a daft one. Surely it would be better for the players to stay in one place, and become accommodated with a national stadium. One possible idea would be, that since so many players come from Liverpool and Manchester United, to hold the national games at either of these two cities, both in the north of England, to accommodate for the years of northern fans traveling south. Both cities are on good transport links with the rest of the country, and both have large international airports.

So far, the FA have suggested London, or Birmingham for the new stadium. London is an acceptable solution - the old stadium was there, it is close to both national airports, it is recognised as the capital of the country. But Birmingham has its advantages too.... errm, yes, it does. Somewhere. Surely having a stadium in the middle of a traffic jam region, in the middle of nowhere, next to the great team that is Birmingham City, is a bad idea. And what's further is that it is quicker for southerners to travel to Manchester or Liverpool than it is to get to Birmingham sometimes. Birmingham boasts "good transport links". That being that they're half-way down a permanently jammed motorway. Have I proved my point? No stadium in Birmingham. So we're back to London. And what's wrong with that?

Fine, so the location is sorted. Now what about the stadium itself? Why spend millions and billions, when that is simply unnecessary? It is my view that the government should help out with the cash problem, because they spent billions on the oh-so-successful Millenium Dome, didn't they? In fact, why not use the Millenium Dome as the national stadium? In the middle of nowhere, but at the same time in London, Already built, but would need slight modification. Try and make a success out of a disaster. The dome could easily be made into a footie stadium, with a little application of cash. I say a little, because it would only need a fraction of that required to build a whole new stadium.

So come on, if I'd have said to you at the start to build the stadium where the dome is, you would have laughed. Who's laughing now?