Wilkinson wants Midlands venue

Howard Wilkinson, the Football Association's technical director, today joined the National Stadium debate by advocating that it should be built, not at Wembley, but in the Midlands.

Wilkinson, who has been instrumental in the design and planning of the new National Football Centre which is to be built in Burton, believes that, ideally, the new stadium should also be nearby.

"The new centre will have the best facilities in the world," said Wilkinson today. "When football people drive through the gates and things start to unfold, they will think they have landed in heaven.

"The East Midlands airport is nearby, as are the major motorways and building a stadium nearby has got a lot going for it.

"I think Sven-Goran Eriksson would say the same. Ideally, he would rather get on a bus and drive 20 minutes than 90 minutes.

"I am not a financial expert. I am looking at it from a technician's point of view."

Wilkinson believes that the national centre is an essential addition to the international set-up.

"The pitches and accommodation should be ready by 2004 and England teams will then have the best facilities in the world. People will want to be there and improve.

"Everything will be based there, the performance and rehabilitation laboratories, the video library and editing suites - Sven will also have an office there.

"A football nation without a national centre is like a family without a home. No matter how nice the hotel is, it's not ours.

"I want to be able, on a Thursday night before we play Brazil, to go down to the editing suite and say: 'Can you do this for me and can I have it by 8am tomorrow because I want to show the players?"

Wilkinson is also a subscriber to the view that the attraction of playing at Wembley enhances the opposition's chances of success there.

"Anfield was a less attractive venue for Finland than Wembley when they came over to play in England," he said.

"Players from other countries can't lie in bed and dream of the place where their heroes played.

"As a ground, it's had a lot of things going for the opposition and not a lot for us."