How the Football Association helped US Soccer build its new home

Britain’s so-called ‘special relationship’ with the United States may be under renewed scrutiny, but when it comes to football, it appears to be in good health.

The chief executive of US Soccer has hailed the FA’s role in the establishment of a “transformative” new 200-acre national training centre outside Atlanta.

JT Batson said officials from the governing body had been “incredible partners in helping us learn from what works well in England”.

“That certainly factored into our thinking around the building of a national centre, as well as the designing of what we’ve called the ‘US Way’, which is our strategy for sporting success,” he said.

Speaking to BBC Sport from the $228 million Arthur M Blank training complex, which opens this week, Batson said “think of it as St George’s Park, but slightly bigger and obviously newer”.

The FA’s Staffordshire base opened in 2012 and has been credited with playing a key role in the subsequent revival of England men’s and women’s teams.

US Soccer officials visited the site as part of a fact-finding mission when designing their own version, which will host the national team’s pre World Cup camp. FA officials are said to have been happy to share knowledge with their US counterparts, who also visited the training grounds of Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City.

“There’s lots to learn from around the world, but the US is different,” added Batson.

“We’re really big, both geographically and in numbers of people. We think that really having a home for the first time for soccer in America is going to be transformative for us.”

Batson also paid tribute to US Soccer’s former sporting director Matt Crocker, who was previously the FA’s former head of teams, based at St George’s Park.

Welshman Crocker was responsible for appointing Mauricio Pochettino and Emma Hayes as head coaches of the US men’s and women’s senior national teams respectively, but left last month to take up a similar role at the Saudi Arabia football federation.

“Matt and team have done an incredible job of taking us from where we were to where we are now from a strategy standpoint… and that gives us the foundation to be able to carry forward… around how do we support the entire soccer ecosystem in the United States to be successful,” said Batson.