ENGLAND’S planned World Cup training base was at the centre of a bizarre and controversial planning dispute.
Thomas Tuchel and the Three Lions coaching staff have earmarked MLS side Sporting Kansas City’s youth facility at the Swope Soccer Village as their preferred centre of operations.
The centrepiece of the £15million complex is the “Championship Field”, complete with a mini-stadium seating 1,500 spectators.
It also offers two further full-sized grass pitches and six astro ones, all of which can be converted to the World Cup dimensions of 105m by 68m.
The England high command believe the base, in the centre of the US, helps cover all eventualities for the tournament.
World Cup regulations mean every team must have a fixed base for the group stage, although they can then move to different training camps for the knock-out phase if they so wish.
crossed off
England World Cup 2026 kit ‘LEAKED’ in dramatic change from ‘woke cross’
Ultra Black
Win a Volvo XC40 + £5,000 or £30,000 cash from just 25p with our code
The FA are weighing up their options but a move is only understood to be in consideration if England win Group L, with knock-out matches then scheduled for Atlanta, Mexico City and Miami before a return to Atlanta for the semi-final.
But the initial development of the proposed site, a decade ago, was at the heart of a major row which saw local residents claiming they had been worked over by city bosses and developers.
The Swope Ridge area where the training camp is now housed had no working sewage system in the early 90s, with locals flushing into septic tanks.
Those required sewerage works were among the demands for the Winchester Town Improvement Fund, which saw city tax dollars set aside to aid development schemes.
In 2012, sitting on £8m of unused funds, city bosses pushed for the sports development.
However, those long-promised underground works had never been done, while some £3m of the money was supposed to go to a local school district.
In a bid to placate angry residents, city officials coughed up the missing millions and also pledged substantial funds to rebuild and widen a prominent local road – only for the cash to run out before works could begin.
A decade on, Manchester United, Manchester City and Newcastle are among the clubs to have used it on pre-season tours, while it has also been utilised by the US men’s and women’s teams and Uruguay.
Yet the FA are still awaiting approval from Fifa before they get the green light to confirm their first-choice location because it is not on the official list of proposed bases.
Fifa’s list for the tournament had two options in the biggest city in Missouri – Sporting KC’s main headquarters to the east of the metropolitan area and the more southerly base of the NWSL women’s KC Current side.
They have been earmarked by Argentina and Holland respectively.
With the holders and Dutch are playing all their games in the central region – with group matches in Dallas, Houston and Kansas City Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium – while England are in an “eastern” group, they both have priority over the Three Lions.
Even so, the FA are confident they will get their first choice, with Tuchel and his team delighted at the meeting rooms, changing facilities and state-of-the-art gym on site.
Fifa are due to confirm the approved list of bases by the end of this week.
Read the full article here
