Stan Collymore, former EPL striker, was interviewed on SBS.

He said England had considered sending coaches to Brazil, and Australia, to evaluate and adopt some of our new football curriculum. Some stakeholders in Engalnd have noted an improvement in football in Australia since we repudiated English coaching methodology in 2007, changing to a Dutch approach, with input from Spain, Germany, France and Brazil.

Frustratingly he said nothing has happened in England to act on this.

Collymore also elucidated that Australian players played in the under 17 national teams, under 20s , under 23s up to seniors, getting sequential exposure to international football. He said in England that Stuart Pierce, recent under 21 England coach, said players were keen to play under 17s, then after that they weren't interested in playing for other England underage teams as they aged. Interesting.:-k

Subsequently and consequently, he thought players then struggled with international tournaments.

Collymore also said the structure of English football needs to change from the top down to grass roots.

He also expressed his frustration at the lack of interest in football at national team level in England from fans and players compared to club football. Collymore said losing to Costa Rica with a population of 5 million, and Uruguay with 3 million, with England having 92 professional clubs, is unacceptable, for a population of 53 million Poms.

He also elucidated the lack of English coaches with Advanced training - C Licence upwards, compared to the continental big five, who have so many semi-pro/pro trained coaches. He also noted the improvement in German and Belgian football since borrowing from the Dutch KNVB. The other issue for them, highlighted by Melbourne Terrace, is the lack of quality of English Football Association courses.

Collymore, very articulate, by any standards, but particularly so for an English footballer, sounds like a frustrated Craig Foster about 8 years ago.