East Staffordshire Borough Council (ESBC) has approved plans for the development of a National Football Centre - St George's Park - near Burton-upon-Trent.

A coach education and training facility; a sports injury and research centre and a hotel form part of plans for the 330-acre (133.5-hectare) site, which have been drawn up by the Football Association (FA). The national governing body is working in partnership with sponsor and kit supplier Umbro on the scheme, which aims to boost regional grassroots football and also includes community-use pitches.

England's 22 FA-supported football squads - including the senior team - will use the complex as a training base, with a multi-purpose sports hall boasting facilities for Futsal and partially sighted football. FA joint acting chair David Sheepshanks said: "We are very pleased to have completed this important phase and to have received the approval of the local authority.

"The planning permission enables us to move towards crystallising the tendering and funding arrangements for this enormously important education hub for football." Image: The FA via Getty Images