So Frank got thinking hard about what was wrong with youth soccer and how could his ideas, together with some of the ways of Little League Baseball be adapted to suit England’s national game. After mulling it over, he came up with his concept of how youth football ought to be arranged. “Football for children,” Frank declared, “should be child-centred.” At the time, that was quite a revolutionary proposal. “No longer would kids have to fit the adult way of playing the game,” he decided, “the game would be changed to fit the children.” Some ideas were pretty obvious, like cutting down the size of pitches to suit the size of the players. No longer should small boys struggle on adult pitches, or goalies be beaten by lobbing the ball over their heads. Some ideas were very new, like limiting the numbers in a squad and making substitutions compulsory, or telling children that once they were in a team, they wouldn’t be dropped if a better player came along.

Frank also wanted every kid to have the chance of playing. So there wouldn’t be fees and subs each week that could exclude boys from poorer families from playing and playing all games at home meant that every Little League became a community organisation, with huge social advantages automatically built into every League. Having thought it through, Frank then started discussions with others in his company football team, notably George Burdett, F. Judd and Ron Sexton.His concept of Little League Football created much enthusiasm and Frank signed up several of his colleagues to be the first team managers. Amongst those keen to be press-ganged was a youngster by name of Ronald Hobbs, who was to prove a valuable addition to the cause.