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 Fields were built at schools and clubs across the country. SoccerGround built the board systems: 1,019 fields, 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 April 13, 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 program, 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: kids should play more soccer again, right where they are every day. On top of that came the integration of kids from immigrant families, the promotion of girls' soccer 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 field; the sites prepared the ground. The selection spread the fields as evenly as possible across the regional associations and regions.
School and club on one field
The fields were built mainly at elementary schools and school centers, 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 field belongs to PE classes and recess, in the afternoon to after-school programs, 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 kids play, in the schoolyard, and find their way into a club where they can develop further.
From Mainz across Germany
Theo Zwanziger opened the first field in October 2007 at the Heinrich-Mumbächer elementary 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 65' x 42', with artificial turf and the SoccerGround board system.
At home in schools, clubs and communities
Many openings drew soccer names and the whole neighborhood, with guests such as World Cup winner Andreas Brehme as a DFB ambassador and German international Steffi Jones. The fields soon became meeting places far beyond the school: in the afternoons and on weekends kids, teens and adults play there, and tournaments such as the Fritz Walter Foundation's for elementary schools or the Sepp Herberger Days bring even more soccer to them.
Across more than 1,000 sites, noise and vandalism remained the exception. The fields are still in use today, and the program became a model: following the DFB's example, the Brandenburg Football Association built another 84 fields, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 15, and many other clients around 300 more SoccerGround fields.
What came of it
Looking back, German soccer owes its steady stream of young talent partly to the lessons drawn from the Euro 2000 debacle, and the Mini-Pitches in the schoolyards 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 65' x 42', goals 10' x 6.5'.
