The biggest and most sustainable youth development project in the history of the DFB, the German Football Association, was called “1,000 Mini-Pitches for Germany”. Between 2007 and 2009, small-sided pitchs were built at schools and clubs across the country. SoccerGround built the board systems: 1,019 pitches, more than planned.
After 1998 and 2000: a plan for young players
Following the national team's poor performances at the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000, the DFB drew up a ten-year plan to find and develop young talent. The home World Cup of 2006 provided the setting: on 13 April 2007 the DFB's executive board decided to turn its success into something lasting. With around 25 million euros, funded from the 2006 World Cup revenues and UEFA's HatTrick programme, the DFB also wanted, in the words of its then president Theo Zwanziger, to thank everyone in Germany who had made the World Cup a great success.
The aim was simple: children should play more football again, right where they are every day. On top of that came the integration of children from immigrant families, the promotion of girls' football and a closer link between schools and clubs. More than 5,000 schools and clubs applied for the DFB grant, which covered the cost of the pitch; the sites prepared the ground. The selection spread the pitchs as evenly as possible across the regional associations and regions.
School and club on one pitch
The pitchs were built mainly at primary schools and school centres, some also at secondary schools and clubs. One condition applied everywhere: the school and a nearby club had to work closely together. In the morning the pitch belongs to PE lessons and break time, in the afternoon to after-school programmes, school clubs and the club's youth training.
This is where youth development comes in: the DFB asked the schools for an active partnership with a club nearby. That way talents are discovered where all children play, in the school playground, and find their way into a club where they can develop further.
From Mainz across Germany
Theo Zwanziger opened the first pitch in October 2007 at the Heinrich-Mumbächer primary school in Mainz-Bretzenheim, during the DFB's national congress. From spring 2008 the others followed, built together with all regional associations, towns and municipalities: 950 in 2008 alone, the last one in 2009. Each is 20 x 13 m, with artificial turf and the SoccerGround board system.
At home in schools, clubs and communities
Many openings drew football names and the whole neighbourhood, with guests such as World Cup winner Andreas Brehme as a DFB ambassador and international Steffi Jones. The pitchs soon became meeting places far beyond the school: in the afternoons and at weekends children, young people and adults play there, and tournaments such as the Fritz Walter Foundation's for primary schools or the Sepp Herberger Days bring even more football to them.
Across more than 1,000 sites, noise and vandalism remained the exception. The pitchs are still in use today, and the programme became a model: following the DFB's example, the Brandenburg Football Association built another 84 pitchs, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 15, and many other clients around 300 more SoccerGround pitchs.
What came of it
Looking back, German football owes its steady stream of young talent partly to the lessons drawn from the Euro 2000 debacle, and the Mini-Pitches in the school playgrounds are part of that story.
More about the SoccerGround Classic, the system of the DFB Mini-Pitches, on its product page, and what a Mini-Pitch can do for your school under For schools.
Product info: SoccerGround Classic 20 x 13 m, goals 3 x 2 m.
