The FA "plans to lay off a quarter of its current staff and negotiate improved interest rate loans for Wembley Stadium" to help pay for a "shift of resources into better facilities and coaching, with the ultimate aim of making the England national side more successful," according to Ian Herbert of the London INDEPENDENT. New FA CEO Martin Glenn reflected on the fact that it "will have been 50 years next year since England won the World Cup." In an attempt to raise the standard, "reverse the deterioration in facilities and the trend of fewer adults playing the game," the FA has announced it is to increase by £15M ($23.4M) per year the amount of money it ploughs into the game, taking the sum from £50M ($78M) to £65M ($101.5M), which includes a commitment to maintain the £12M ($18.7M) annual sum currently invested through the Football Foundation. The total investment over the next four years will be at least £260M ($405.8M). Though the £15M annual figure has "already been accounted for," the FA's intended £30M ($46.8M) annual savings -- "which are expected to be found equally from workforce restructuring, interest rates and general savings" -- will enable the acceleration of plans to build a network of 30 or more new "city hubs" across England. Glenn: "We have said we want to put football projects more at the heart of the FA. To do that we are taking quite a lot of roles out of the administration part of the FA." Glenn said that would entail "automating things, taking the well-proven techniques that other commercial organisations have in terms of managing the back office" (INDEPENDENT, 8/13).
