St George’s Park

St George’s Park is the English Football Association’s training centre – also known as the National Football Centre. It’s a huge site which was opened in 2012 covering 330 acres in the Staffordshire countryside. The England team train here before international games and tournaments and it’s a fantastic facility to visit. On site are a huge hotel with bars and restaurants, along with world-class soccer training facilities. The buildings are surrounded by a collection of outdoor pitches, each named after an England legend. When the England players are training here, there is no access to the general public but at most other times you can visit can walk around at your leisure. Pop into the hotel for a meal or drink and walk around the outdoor pitches. If you can though, we’d recommend getting under the skin of this place by taking a guided tour.

The hour-long tours run on an ad-hoc basis and take you to see most of the facilities here. Our guide really brought the whole place to life. You’ll see some of the conferencing facilities before walking over to the National Football Centre building. This building is not normally open to the public and inside, you’ll see the England dressing room, complete with replica shirts. You’ll also see the indoor Futsal hall, and the wall which has been signed by some of the greats of world football. There are actually dozens of national teams which have trained here along with many English clubs.

Outside, you will see the Wembley replica pitch which is exactly the same as the one at the London stadium. The big highlight though, is the full-size indoor soccer pitch (pictured below). It’s an incredible sight to see and you’re encouraged to feel the ‘turf’ which is a high-tech plastic mix and does feel like real grass. Alongside this is an indoor running track, which our tour party tried out! We didn’t get to see the hydro-therapy pools, the hospital and the gym on the tour however which is used for rehabilitation of sports injuries.

The tour of St George’s Park only runs occasionally. You can enquire about dates and book by calling the number below.

LOCATION & MAP

Address: St George’s Park, Newborough Road, Needwood, Staffordshire DE13 9PD
Phone: +44 1283 576200

St George’s Park – The FA National Football Centre is 15 miles from Derby located near the Staffordshire village of Rangemore.

There’s a lovely little Airbnb nearby which we’d recommend if you want to stay overnight. It’s in the picturesque village of Tutbury and is packed with original features. It was also very affordable! Check out prices here:
Glassworker’s Cottage, Tutbury