FA vote on preventing full size pitches for U12s today

Seems a good idea to me, all playing on a full size pitch teaches you at that age is whos fastest/strongest

Vote passed, now hopefully we increase the number of youth coaches in this country and future generations will have technical ability to rival foreign youth talent.

We may see some progression come 2030 then

Good idea. I remember playing on a big pitch when I was 10. The ball would more often than not be lumped up the field and 10 kids would then chase it.

Good that the vote passed so we start teaching the youngsters technical skill and, more importantly, keeping the ball. Steven Gerrard in particular appears to have been taught to whack the ball long at every opportunity so hopefully that sort of thing will be cut out.

Only skillful midfielders England have had for the last 20 years are:

Gascoigne
Scholes
Joe Cole

No one else is really near the same category, probably be another decade before a few players are unearthed!

Well in that time the U12s will be around 21 or so so yeah, that'd be a reasonable guess

2026 World Cup is England's time! God knows where that one will be held, probably Zimbabwe but I wouldn't rule out Iran or North Korea.

Haven't had a WC in Antartica yet

I think this is a much better idea, I played on a full size pitch from the age of 12 and my team at the time struggled due to the size of other teams we would play against. It should be about small sided games on smaller pitches that increases year on year

At least the FA is making steps in the right direction.

They'd be better off making it until under 15s, however, as that's when most kids will have reached more or less their adult size. They should also make the goals smaller still for under-age football, and reduce ball size across age grades. 8 year-olds playing with size four balls and 6ft x 12ft goals don't require skill.

As other posters have pointed out, we simply don't have players with the vision, movement or control of other countries. It's notable that the majority of our 'world-class' players are box-to-box players with good shooting from distance and a good passing range (ie kick and rush players).