The National Sports Center in Blaine, Minnesota is the world’s biggest football complex. FIFA magazine paid it a visit.
Football in the USA has undergone tremendous growth in the last 20 years and that success is partly due to the facilities available. The state of Minnesota is known as the “Land of the 10,000 Lakes”, where you can swim in the summer and skate in the winter. Located in the Midwest, Minnesota stands out for its considerable investment in education, culture and recreation. With 79,000 boys and girls registered as youth players, football occupies an important place in every family.
Twenty minutes north of the twin cities of Minneapolis and St Paul is Blaine, where hundreds of youngsters enjoy playing football in a complex covering an enormous area. A plaque from the Guinness Book of Records certifies that the National Sports Center (NSC), with its 55 football pitches, is the world’s biggest football complex. The premises of this amateur sports centre stretch for an impressive 2.5 square kilometres (more than 600 acres). It was inaugurated in 1990 and received four million visitors in 2007.
FROZEN FOOTBALL
In January, when temperatures drop to minus 25° C, the pitches are covered with snow and only the goals are visible. However, football carries on unabated inside the NSC. After playing an indoor tournament on artificial turf, the youngsters wrap up warmly before leaving the hall. The NSC’s offices are located in the same building and it is there that the preparations for the new season, which begins in April, are made. NSC Chief Communications Officer Barclay Kruse is enthusiastic about the buzz of activity at the centre: “At the moment we have 46 pitches available due to the construction of the new buildings, but we will be adding another stretch of land on the north side, so the number will top 50 again.”
The winter is a good time for training. In the main hall at the Schwan Center, 100 referees are attending a seminar. Veterans and teenagers of both sexes listen to instructors Steve Olsen and Holly Hollingsworth with interest. FIFA’s videos contain footage of 50 incidents which genetate a passionate debate. Director of Instruction Dean Barton reminds everyone of the importance of being professional and trying to develop, as well as of being responsible, reasonable and respectful. The day ends with the participants taking their certification exams.
BIG TOURNAMENTS
“We are proud of the Schwan’s USA Cup because it is more than a footballing experience, it is a complete programme of activities for young people. On each of those days 25,000 people visit us and they are all present at the opening ceremony, like at the Olympic Games.” More than 1,000 teams from 21 countries take part in this tournament, which is held in July. Two thousand fixtures are played over nine days, with games broadcast over the internet. The players are boys and girls aged between 9 and 19 who are put up by host families, board at the NSC or stay at one of 40 hotels in the area. There are also 500 referees, who find this unique occasion to exchange knowledge highly rewarding, and 1,000 volunteers to help with organisation.
During these competitions, all of the pitches are in use simultaneously. To make this possible, the number of NSC staff, which is usually 65, is doubled in the summer, principally for maintenance work. The NSC also hosts the NSC Cup and the Wal*Mart All American Cup, which includes an all-American girls’ competition. On top of that, the Minnesota state tournaments are played there, as well as the Liga Azteca, featuring teams of local Latin Americans.
Kruse explains the reason why the pitches are in use non-stop: “NSC was created through a contribution of USD 20.3 million from the state of Minnesota and is a non¬profit-making entity that must finance itself. It is therefore necessary to raise funds through the tournaments and contributions from sponsors. Last year, the NSC generated USD 11 million in revenue.”
The indoor competitions end in February such is the desire to be in the open air after the harsh winter. Natural turf pitches are then used from April to October.
ILLUSTRIOUS GUESTS
Alan Merrick is a former West Bromwich Albion defender who moved to Minnesota in 1976 to play for the Minnesota Kicks in the North American Soccer League. He is now the director of the NSC academy, where individual and group skills are developed through camps, practical courses and personalised training, both at competitive and recreational level. These activities continue indoors throughout the winter.
Unlike in many other countries, where identification with a particular team or player inspires children to take up football, most people in the USA do not have these reference points. Nevertheless, the 1994 FIFA World Cup™ marked a turning point and the NSC received visits from guests who made a real impression on young players such as Pele, who has attended the USA Cup on two occasions. In 2004 George Weah was in attendance and last year Italian national team head coach Roberto Donadoni took part in sessions with coaches and players. Local stars Alexi Lalas and Landon Donovan have also visited Blaine.
During the big tournaments, high-profile matches are held in the stadium, such as games featuring the US women’s team, whose roll of honour includes an Olympic gold medal and the FIFA Women’s World Cup title, which are always a special occasion. The youngsters are unable to conceal their pride at seeing heroines such as Mia Hamm, Michele Akers, Julie Foudy, Briana Scurry and Brandi Chastain in the flesh. The same venue witnessed a 14-year-old Freddy Adu as he dazzled onlookers.
Other sports are also flourishing at the NSC. The initial project to build 30 pitches has now expanded to include a cycling track and the latest construction, the Schwan Super Rink, houses eight ice hockey rinks. The youth golf centre also attracts a considerable number of visitors. The latest project is Sports Town USA, a sports-oriented commercial development. Youngsters are a very attractive market for sponsors and from a very young age, thousands of them are bringing the incomparable values of football into their lives thanks to the vast number of pitches on which they are able to play.

This year’s Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup is being staged in Zurich for the 70th time. Hundreds of football stars have already taken part in this tournament – one of the most famous youth competitions in the world.
In the age of casting shows, the anniversary celebration of one of the festivals that, year in year out, showcases emerging football talent, could not be more auspiciously timed. This year, the Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup will be staged for the 70th time on 30 April and 1 May at the Buchlern sportsground in the Swiss metropolis of Zurich.
The fact that the tournament has reached such a ripe old age is thanks to Fritz Rey’s dogged determination. At a meeting of the board of local club Blue Stars on 3 December 1938, the then head of the youth committee expounded his plans to stage a tournament for young footballers. The board’s reaction to Rey’s idea was at first anything but exuberant but they finally gave the green light to the project when the man with the pioneering spirit agreed to charge any deficit incurred by the tournament to the club’s youth team account. The first tournament was held in 1939 and was expanded to international status in 1946. The first non-Swiss team to break into the honours list was Austria Vienna in 1947. Manchester United, who were pioneering youth development programmes way back in the mid-20th century, are the record holders, with 18 titles to their name. England’s most famous international, Sir Bobby Charlton, is a product of that training programme. The 1966 world champion took part in the competition in Zurich four times, helping his club to win the title at their first attempt in 1954.
Sir Bobby Charlton is only one of scores of international football celebrities who have taken part in the tournament arranged by the amateur club from Switzerland. Many budding footballers whose names appeared inconspicuously on the squad lists were later to enthral millions of football fans around the world. Subsequent British stars such as Bobby Moore, George Best, Mark Hughes, Norman Whiteside, Trevor Brooking and Ryan Giggs once graced the Letzigrund Stadium, as did Germans such as Helmut Haller, Markus Babbel and Didi Hamann, Nigeria’s virtuoso Augustine “Jay-Jay” Okocha, Switzerland’s Johann Vogel und Hakan Yakin, Italy’s Fulvio Collovati and Spain’s Ivan de la Pena and Albert Ferrer. In 1994, a youngster in Manchester United colours, who was later to become a sports and advertising idol, also made his debut – David Beckham, alongside players such as Paul Scholes, Gary and Phil Neville and Nicky Butt formed the backbone of the record-breaking team, who, however, in that year succumbed to Barcelona.
In 1991, FIFA took the event under its wing and four years later it was renamed the Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup. “FIFA has its headquarters in Zurich so naturally would like to support a football initiative in the city,” commented Joseph S. Blatter, President of world football’s governing body, at the time. “What could fit the bill better than a youth tournament?”
While the Letzigrund was being refurbished in 2007, the Blue Stars/ FIFA Youth Cup moved to the attractive sportsground of Buchlern, which will again form an appropriate backdrop to the tournament this year. The extended mini-stadium has room for 6,200 spectators. It is the first time that the tournament has started in April and anyone born on or after 1 January 1988 will be eligible to play. The defending champions are Partizan Belgrade. And every onlooker will have his eyes peeled on the action and will be predicting the new Charlton, the emerging Beckham or the legitimate successor to Haller or Okocha.
BLUE STARS/FIFA YOUTH CUP 2008
Participants (split into two groups of five): CR Flamengo (Brazil), Hamburg SV (Germany), Partizan Belgrade (Serbia), Manchester United (England), AEK Athens (Greece), Villarreal (Spain), FC Blue Stars, FC Zurich, Grasshoppers, FC Basel (all Switzerland).

Tournament Champions From 1991 to 2007
1991: Spartak Moscow
1992: Spartak Moscow
1993: Barcelona
1994: Barcelona
1995: Barcelona
1996: Benfica
1997: FC Basel
1998: Grasshoppers
1999: Sao Paulo
2000: Sao Paulo
2001: Gremio
2002: Boca Juniors
2003: Roma
2004: Manchester United
2005: Manchester United
2006: Grasshoppers
2007: Partizan Belgrade
37 different tournament winners from a total of 14 countries. Most successful clubs: Manchester United (18 titles), Grasshoppers (6).

Curently, there are six officially accredited FIFA Medical Centres of Exellence worldwide:
- adidas Sport Medicine Centre, Auckland, New Zealand, www.sportsmed.net.nz
- Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medecine, University of the Witwatersrand, Johanesburg, South Africa

http://web.wits.ac.za/Academic/Health/TherapeuticSciences/ExerciseScience/Home.htm

- Orthopaedic Clinic Munich-Harlaching, Technical University, Munich, Germany
www.schoen-kliniken.de
- Santa Monica Orthopaedic and Sports Medecine Group, Santa Monica, USA
www.smog-ortho.com
- Schulthess Clinic, Zurich, Switzerland
www.schulthess-klinik.ch/app/article/index.cfm?fuseaction=OpenArticle&aoid=1754&lang=EN
The centres are generally open to players of all levels looking for advice, assessment, therapy or a second opinion on a specific injury or illness. Contact details can be found at htpp://en.fifa.com/about/developing/medical/newsid=697337.html#fifa+medical+centres+excellence