Ramblings of a Wealth Manager – Wednesday 14th July

C’mon England give us a goal!

Are we over Sunday yet….just about?  This article provides you with an insight into the England National Team journey over the last 10 years and explains the importance of goal setting.

Goal Setting

In 2010 the ‘Golden Generation’ were presented with one last shot at gleaning a major trophy but, in truth, these players merely ended up emulating their toils of previous tournaments.  Fabio Capello’s side crashed out of the World Cup after a humbling defeat by Germany, which is best remembered for Frank Lampard’s ‘ghost goal’.  We were well beaten on the day by the youngest German squad since 1964 (average age of 25).  The Die Mannschaft set realistic expectations and used the tournament to lay down foundations for future years (not a bad move considering they won the next world cup!).

Their approach did not go unnoticed by the FA, who a year later in 2011 committed to their own long term strategy which consisted of three main goals:

  1. Football for everyone,
  2. Build winning teams, and;
  3. Govern the game effectively.

Objectives

Their objectives were:

  1. To get more people playing football,
  2. Develop/better prepare players for international tournaments, and;
  3. Improve application of the game’s rules.

Delivery

To deliver on these goals the FA:

  1. Committed funds to new projects and facilities to capture new talent and help retain exiting players by having access to high-quality facilities,
  2. Established St George’s Park, a world-class centre for coaching and home of English football development, and;
  3. Introduced VAR in 2019/20 season.

Outcome

10 years on, the results are in.

  1. The number of people participating in football who play at least twice a month is actually down from 2.1 million in 2011 to 1.9 million in 2021.
  2. England have reached the semi-final (2018 World Cup) and final (2020 Euro Championship) in back-to-back tournaments, which hasn’t happened since the 1960s, and climbed nine places in the FIFA rankings from 13th in 2011 to 4th in 2021, and;
  3. VAR has provoked more controversy as many decisions are still based on the referee’s opinion of an incident.

Great Success?

  1. No, there has been a small decline in the number of active participants.
  2. Yes, St Georges Park appears to help players better prepare for big games and on Sunday we reached our first major final for 55 years!
  3. No, but the use of the technology should get better with every passing year.

Summary

The fact the FA have not met their goals is okay – the most important thing is that it identified a need to improve in certain areas and set specific and measurable goals that are reviewed on a regular basis.

It’s the same with your finances – it’s important to have a plan in place and keep track of your progress.

In the absence of any goals setting it’s likely that, in the words of Baddiel and Skinner, your “gonna throw it away, gonna blow it away”.

As part of our core service, we use cash flow planning to help potential new and existing clients visualise their financial future, test different scenarios and instantly understand the impact of key decisions on life events along the way.  Knowing what the future looks like can help avoid “thirty years of hurt” in retirement.

If you would find this useful for you or your clients then please do not hesitate to get in touch for a free review.  Can’t promise that we will provide meat pie and sausage rolls.  Can promise more England gags.

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