How a Business can get Involved!

Here is a breakdown of what every donation to support disadvantaged young people in the schools or poor communities of Curitiba will contribute towards:

- £2.50 will provide ONE HOUR of sport or English lessons.
- £18.50 will provide a full DAY of sport or English lessons.
- £92.50 will provide a WEEK of sport or English lessons.
- Telling friends or family about the project...NOTHING!

However we would love for companies to sponsor us and represent the region on a global scale.

For £100 a company will receive:

• their logo on banners which will be used for all fundraising and during delivery in Brazil.
• their logo on a hoarding will be used for interviews that will be posted on our social media sites.
• each company will get an newsletter update from us on our progress.
• each company will get a personal message of thanks for their donation.
• we would be willing to be involved in any press releases stating how you have helped them.

Sponsor Update!

Delighted to announce that The North East HUB are going to be one of our sponsors and support us with our social media. It is brilliant to have them on board and look forward to them sharing our cause with a bigger audience!

Website: http://thenortheasthub.com/blog/ 

Lionsraw Meeting

So today we had the pleasure of meeting some key executive members from Lionsraw. It was great to be able to meet new people, but also to explain a bit more about our background and personalities. 2013 is going to be huge with some events potentially out of this world! That is our first meeting of the week done and two more planned for the rest of the week focusing on social media. Merry Christmas!

EUROS FOR EUROPE 2020

UEFA announce multiple cities to host EURO 2020

Euro 2020 will be held across multiple host cities across Europe which will change from the usual format of one or two countries hosting the tournament every four years. UEFA have described the proposal as a 'Euros for Europe'. The home nations have already expressed an interest in staging matches while the FA have put Wembley forward as a host venue. The bidding process between cities will start early in 2013 and will end in 2014.

We can see the benefits of an individual city hosting part of the event as it does provide a feel good factor among the local residents who have a chance to welcome new people to their city and showcase what they have to offer. Due to the economic climate it can also provide less pressure on a country to develop football stadiums and infrastructure to cope with a major sporting event, especially as the event will change to a 24 team tournament from 2016.

However it might affect the unique atmosphere one or two countries have been hosting the entire event. It will deny fans the chance to get involved with a host countries culture, remove any tourism benefits and might lose national pride from hosting a major sporting event. It may cause logistical issues getting around Europe for fans wanting to watch their team depending on how UEFA would like the event to run.

It is going to be a change to the traditional format to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the event and might be a one off change. Either way it is certainly an interesting idea and has people talking about what might happen.

Check our Facebook and Twitter

The Future of English Football

Our Visit To St.Georges Park 

The purpose of our visit to St.Georges Park was to receive coach education and to keep up to date with the progression of the English game. During our time at the national football centre we watched various coaching sessions such as ball retention and possession, the transference of Futsal skills and playing in the final thirds. We also had the privilege to take a tour of the facility which is unbelievable.

In this article we will take you through some of the fantastic areas of St.Georges Park and talk about some of the things we learnt during the first ever licenced coaches conference to be held there.

Guest Speakers Included - Sir Trevor Brooking (Director of Football Development), Les Howie (Head of Grassroots Coaching), Toni Minichiello (UK Athletics, Coach to Jessica Ennis), Brent Hills (Assistant National Coach Women’s Football),  Dr Steve Peters (Consultant Psychiatrist - UK Athletics - British Cycling / Team Sky Pro Cycling), Owen Coyle (Former Bolton Wanderers and Burnley Manager)

Behind the scene photos from our time at St.Georges Park

This is the fantastic full sized indoor artificial pitch (120m - 80m)

The Elite pitch in which England's senior team train on. The children in the background are from a local football club and were used for a session on ball retention and possession.

The FA is getting on board with the Futsal movement and this is the FA's brand new Futsal training area. In this picture we see Julie Callaghan (Regional Coach Development Manager) talking to us about Futsal sessions and the transference to regular football. Futsal is a game we are likely to see quite a lot of in Brazil with the recent success of Brazil's national Futsal team in the Futsal World Cup.

Hydrotherapy Suite

Hydrotherapy pool at St George's Park - The hydrotherapy pools are brilliant for recovery and relaxation. The players will do five laps of the ice bath and then spend two minutes in the hot tub and then repeat the process.

Hydroworx underwater treadmill - Used for sports rehabilitation and is great for fast recoveries with less pain involved for the athletes. Only eight of these exist in the UK at the moment and one of them owned by Alistair Brownlee the current Triathlon Olympic champion. Costing £300,000 this is surely St Georges Park's treasured item.

Variopool - Because of the adjustable depth this pool can be used for stretching, gentle swimming and jogging which makes this a fantastic piece of equipment for all types of sporting disciplines.

Sports Massage - sports massages have numerous benefits as they help maintain the body generally in better condition, prevent injuries and loss of mobility / flexibility. They can restore mobility to injured muscle tissue, boost performance and extend the overall life of your sporting career.

Gymnasium and Performance Analysis

This is the area where qualified sports medicine staff take blood samples and perform medical tests on athletes.

Batak reaction board - its purpose is to measure a person's ability to see, process and react to visual information quickly. This piece of equipment is great for training to have faster reflexes and reactions which is handy for all athletes.

Specialist treadmills to increase cardiovascular fitness and endurance.

Far right is the performance analysis bikes which are great for competitiveness between teammates and is great for recording performance.

Far right is the state of the art Alter-G anti-gravity treadmill. this treadmill pumps air into the zip-locked chamber that covers the treadmill below the user’s waist in order to counteract gravity, this in turn allows the runner to offset their body weight by 80 percent. This machine is great because it protects the joints from high impact running whilst still giving them a effective cardiovascular workout. It is said that using this machine can speed up recovery time by two to four weeks.

St Georges Park's very own altitude chamber. Oxygen is filtered out of the air to simulate training at altitude. Athletes must work harder to run on treadmills and push the pedals around on the bikes. Humidity and temperature can be controlled in the chamber to create the most realistic environment for training purposes. Ahead of Rio in 2014, for example, Roy Hodgson’s squad can adapt to exercising in unfamiliar conditions.

It is simple if you are interested in how the mind works and how to use the mind to boost sports performance, BUY THIS BOOK. Dr Steve Peters has worked with big names in sport such as Sir Chris Hoy, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Craig Bellamy and has now been signed as a sports psychiatrist at Liverpool FC. This book is not sports specific but can be applied to sports in many situations. One thing left to say from the conference is BEWARE OF YOUR CHIMP!!!!!!!!

Inspiration and History

150 manikins for each and every birthday the English FA has had. A fantastically rich history demonstrated by the use of appropriately designed manikins such as the Sir Bobby Robson and Bobby Moore designed manikins.

Former Newcastle United and England legend Paul Gascoigne plastered on the walls of England's national football centre. Gascoigne won 57 caps for England's senior team and scored 10 goals.

Diego Maradona's infamous 'HAND OF GOD' goal against England's Peter Shilton in the 1986 World cup. A painful memory for a generation of English fans and one which will be remembered when walking the St. George's park corridors.

From a painful memory to a glorious one. Here is England's World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore. Bobby lifted the World Cup trophy after a very successful 1966 tournament which was hosted by England.

One of the most iconic football photos in HISTORY, here we see Bobby Moore and Pele swapping shirts after the opening game of the 1970 Mexico world cup. This photo is a personal favourite of ours because our dream and objective is to get to Brazil and coach disadvantaged children and this picture shows two giant footballing nations sharing a historic moment. Hopefully we will be sharing historic football moments with the community of Curitiba in 2014.

St. George's Park Facts & Figures.

• The sports hall is 1/3 of the area of the current Wembley pitch and is the largest seamless area elastic PU floor in the UK
• St. George's Park has 1 altitude chamber
• 2 full size Futsal pitches can be accommodated in the indoor sports hall
• 3.5 miles of rabbit fencing has been used to protect pitches
• 5 gymnasiums (Hilton and Hampton by Hilton gyms, Biomechanical gym, Rehabilitation gym, Strength and Conditioning gym)
• 5 pitches have under-soil heating and floodlighting
• 12 full-size pitches, including one indoor full-size pitch
• 232 air conditioned rooms in the Hilton and Hampton by Hilton hotels
• 14 suites in the Hilton hotel
• The technology at St. George’s Park is run by 15-20 servers
• 230 televisions and projector screens have been installed with 23 touch screens and boards
• St. George’s Park is home to 24 England teams
• East Midlands airport is 26.1 miles from St. George's Park
• Birmingham Airport is 32.8 miles from St. George's Park
• There are 41 executive rooms in the Hilton hotel
• 50km of brick blocks if laid one in front of the other that would stretch the distance from the site to Birmingham
• 60m running track
• 60m x 40m multi-purpose indoor sports hall
• 65inch touch screen television in the England senior team dressing room
• The rubber crumb used in the gymnasium and re-habiliation rooms is the same granulate used in the outdoor track upon which Usain Bolt broke the 100m record
• 120m x 80m indoor full-size artificial football pitch
• 132 miles to Wembley Stadium
• 130km of pipe to service the under-soil heating
• 138 infield irrigation points
• 250 person education complex
• 275 job created
• 330 acres of land
• 350 car park spaces
• 400 telephones and internet services are installed at St. George’s Park, costing £1.5million
• 500 seat conference centre
• 800 new coaches to be trained and qualified per year at St. George's Park
• 800 coaches to receive Continued Professional Development across the game
• 1,200 licensed coach educators (tutors) to be trained and licensed
• The idea of a national football centre was first discussed in the year 1975
• By 2017 The FA is committed to reducing the ratio of qualified coaches to players from the 1:68 to 1:25
• It takes 4,000 litres of water per night to service the under-soil heating
• 55,000 coaches will go through Levels 1 & 2 and youth award qualifications which will be delivered by the new 1,200 coach educators
• If the roof fabric was removed and made into souvenirs, there is enough to make 64,000 football boot bags
• 90,000 bolts have been used to connect the steel work and is the equivalent to a typical Wembley crowd
• 2.4million litres of water is in a holding tank to service the infield irrigation points
• There was a £3million technology budget
• There are 100million blades of Desso Grassmaster synthetic fibres on the main ‘Elite’ pitch, where the England senior team will train - an exact replica of the surface at Wembley Stadium

Source from www.thefa.com

THE FUTURE OF ENGLISH FOOTBALL LOOKS BRIGHT

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