There is a current malaise effecting almost everyone in England that follows the national side, from fans, retailers, journalists and TV executives. The finger of blame is being pointed fairly equally between Fabio Capello and the highly paid, highly hyped and self important members of the squad. Ashley Cole, despite being the only first team regular who can honestly hold his head high after the South Africa debacle, is now being accused of hating his country due to text messages apparently sent prior to the tournament.

Yet there are two points that are seemingly being papered over and as long as it continues, England will continue to regress. Firstly is the ineptitude of the Football Association and the second is the quality of coaching in England. The F.A. board, when it’s not embroiling itself in comedy crisis that are usually self inflicted is a strange beast. Made up of a set of people who’s only interest is themselves and self protection, it is a collection of administrators and people who have progressed through the amateur ranks of the game.

On the 12 man board are 4 members from the County associations, representing those hotbeds of English football, Kent, Hampshire, Gloucesteshire and Essex. One member represents the Scottish football association, for reasons lost on me and 7 other members who have never played football at a decent level. This apparently means these people, who other than working on the administration side of football, are in charge of the English game, its infrastructure, its future and it’s present. An organisation that spent £760 million on a football stadium without a roof and a pitch that has now been relaid 13 times in 3 years. That has had 6 Chief Executives in 12 years and seen 6 different national team managers in the same period. That signed up to a £450 million pound television deal that lasted 18 months until Setanta went bust and treats the Women’s game with utter disdain. Apparently, this is without criticism as they survey the wreckage of South Africa 2010 from the ivory tower of Soho Square.

Why do these people, who have no experience of the game, other than the money making side or administrating side of it, feel they can run the football side of it astounds me. It is beyond belief that people of the abilities of Bobby Robson, Bobby Charlton, Geoff Hurst, Nat Lofthouse, Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney were not involved over the years is a disgrace. This is the organisation that shut the Lilleshall Football Academy in 1999 and is still stalling on its replacement, in Burton Upon Trent which is currently 7 years behind schedule and will apparently be open by 2012. No really it will.

These are apparently all things that we should ignore. Well I’m sorry, you can’t ignore them anymore. Every single one of them should resign immediately, they have created the situation that English football is beginning to feel to its very core. They have strangled the talent, the abilities and the opportunities for skillful, exciting footballers and left us with an academy system that simply produces strong athletes that can run a lot and now clearly cannot play football. It is a national disgrace and leads me to my second point, the quality of coaching.

English football coaching is run by a cabal of men who are obsessed with power, pace, stamina, heart, guts and determination above any technical ability. Skill and technical ability come well down the list of priorities in the coaching system in this country. I have seen this at 3 clubs with my own eyes, players are judged on how strong they are, how tall they are, how long they can run about for. I have been told by two separate football coaches at two clubs that British Asian kids don’t make good footballers because they’re not strong enough. There was no hint of irony or the racial connotations that the statement conjours up. The last great crop of really talented players that came through in English football came through before the academy system came in to destroy any semblance of talent. This country will never discover a Messi, a Ronaldo, a Totti, a Ribery because they would be classed as luxury players. They would never get through the academy system in this country because they are not giants who can run all day. England and its fans often claim that the national side has 5 or 6 World Class players. South Africa has proved that it has one and everyone seems to hate him, Ashley Cole.

Only Rio Ferdinand can possible be held up in Cole’s company now, the rest have been shown to be the overhyped, cossetted athletes honest people believed them to be. Yet, this is what the English coaching system has produced and I’ve seen so many posts, letters and status updates berating the English teams lack of fight, guts, effort, strength. Hardly anyone mentions technical ability or skill and that’s the problem. Fans seem to only judge a player on how much he runs about and gets stuck in. Not the sweet pass, not the dribble, not an ability to control the game.

The situation will not improve until the coaching system is completely changed from top to bottom, allows kids under 16 to play football and not worry about results in junior games. Talent needs to take the place of the winning at all costs method kids have to suffer from, the mad situation that sees 10 year old children playing 11 a side games on full sized pitches that resemble bogs most of the season. No wonder the English players natural defence is to simply learn how to kick high and hard as often as possible. That sees parents of children scream abuse at referees, coaches and opponents if little johnny is tackled or doesn’t score.

Of course, the F.A. will not install this blueprint and will try and fudge South Africa as an aberration. It is not, it is a stark warning to everyone involved in English football of the future. Blaming foreign players, Adidas balls, only playing 4 rounds of golf a week, too much camp discipline or dodgy referees will be put forward as the reason for the death of English football. English football needs major surgery now or South Africa will be the starting point of the end of English football. I fear that once again, the F.A. will blame everyone else but themselves and we will slip away into the shadows of world football.

Please leave me your comments below and you can find me at https://twitter.com/paulbestall

I was lucky enough this weekend to be able to watch both FA Cup semi finals that took place at Wembley stadium in London from the comfort of my own home. As we know, Chelsea got the better of Aston Villa while Portsmouth went through against Tottenham in a fantastically entertaining and dramatic game.

The final, which takes place on 15 May, will pit the ’08 winner v the ’09 winner with former Chelsea manager Avram Grant now at the helm for Pompey. The final itself has enough sub-plots and story lines to assure an entertaining day. It’ll most likely be 1 v 20 and David v Goliath in a match where everything gets thrown out the window when the opening whistle blows.  

It’s safe to say that on paper, Chelsea should be favorites. However, the way Portsmouth players seem to play with no pressure because of the fact their Premier League fate is now secured, leads me to believe that I would be foolish to write off their chances.

In the aftermath of the semi finals, supporters, managers, pundits and participants on call in shows have yet again lamented the awful playing surface of the national stadium. The state of the Wembley pitch has come into question more times than number of divots one could count on the surface itself. Does the FA think of business and finances first and football second? Is the state of the pitch really that terrible?

In short, Yes – but why?

Over the course of this past weekend’s two matches, multiple players could be seen slipping and losing their footing all afternoon. Portsmouth’s opening goal in added extra time came when Spurs defender Michael Dawson, attempting to mark Portsmouth’s Frederic Piquionne, slipped and fell in the box allowing Piquionne to score the vital opener.

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp was quoted as saying “The pitch was a disgrace. I’m not using it as an excuse – it was the same for both teams – but for any professional team to have to play football on that is farcical.”

The dreadful surface has even been described as a “skating rink“, wherein players are constantly trying to stay on their feet. Redknapp furthered his disdain for the field by saying, “It’s rock hard and wet on top, it’s impossible to play on”. As bad as the pitch may have been, and although the result didn’t go the way of Tottenham, Spurs were in fact able to “play” on Sunday. Tottenham were the better team moving forward over the course of the afternoon, Spurs just lacked that killer ball in the final third, creating chance after chance, but definitely lacked sharpness in front of goal.

On Saturday’s episode of the BBC 5 Live 606 Football Phone In, a caller brought up the idea of the design of the stadium itself not allowing in enough sun to reach the pitch. Although I’m not an architect or expert in landscape & design, the caller’s point got me thinking of the FA’s priorities. Do they care enough about the state of the national stadium? Are number of tickets sold, expensive chili dogs and matches that in all honesty, shouldn’t even be played at Wembley all they really care about?

Who’s to blame for the pitch, and why won’t it’s woeful state be rightfully addressed? In all honesty, just how bad is the state of the Wembley pitch? Regardless of your opinion, as a fan of the England national team and English football in general, I for one remained embarrassed by the woeful state of the Wembley pitch.

For many football fans, it’s a dream come true. The possibility of seeing your favorite team play in a cup final at Wembley. But in the case of Man United fan Phil Spark, it turned into a nightmare when he couldn’t get a ticket to see his team play Spurs in the Carling Cup Final. Instead of wallowing in depression, Didsbury resident Spark did one better by recreating the Wembley experience in his own home.

Here’s what he did:

• He turfed his room with fake grass,
• Installed two rows of stadium style seats,
• Fitted a turnstile to access the room,
• Adorned the wall with crowd shots,
• Installed the Sky + HD box for his 52 inch flat-screen plasma television, and
• Brought in a whole bunch of the classic meat pies found at football matches.

Too bad the match wasn’t that exciting!

Tip: The Daily Mirror.

England plays the Czech Republic in a friendly today at 3pm ET/8pm UK time. The game will be shown live on Fox Soccer Channel for U.S. viewers, while U.K. viewers can find the match on Setanta Sports.

It should be interesting to see how Fabio Capello’s side does at Wembley on a night when Emile Heskey may get a chance to start up front, John Terry returns as captain and 30,000 seats are still unsold.

If you’ll be watching – or have watched – today’s matches, please share your thoughts, insight, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.