Everyday on twitter I see many retweets asking people to sign a petition to get parliament to debate the serious state of grassroots football and take action over the promised 5% of tv revenue that was made when Rupert Murdoch took control of the professional game.
The professional game now attracts billions of pounds from Sky TV, BT Sport and others, yet the game at grass roots level is struggling! It's on it's knees.
Ever year the league in which my son plays loses teams! Lack of quality coaches, costs, or what?
Well I will give you a quick run through what a season entails!
First of all his division has eleven teams in it and they are based at various towns and villages within the county.
Our team are lucky as I have been able to get sponsorship which has allowed us to have two brand new home and away kits. A local businessman who is a long standing family friend agreed to renew a previous sponsorship and in fact increased his support for the team.
I have over the years approached over one hundred local businesses and the amount that actually reply is in single digits!
As a parent you have the cost of boots. My son usually has two pairs one for hard ground and one for soft ground, plus he also has a pair of astro turf boots for training which is on a 3G pitch. So theres the best part of £150 there and by mid season he is needing complete replacements of all as he has outgrown them.
His old but still very good condition boots are usually passed on to friends or relations.
Shin guards are the cheapest part of the budget costing a tenner.
The biggest expense is training and signing on fees! £140 in total! Absolutely scandalous that to play what is or was considered a working class sport, that the fees are so high for a 14 year old to play football.
Imagine families with several children wanting to play!
Also, the main catchment area is three council estates where deprivation is obvious to all! I know lots of talented children who aren't playing simply because their parents can't afford it!
Our club has approximately 26 teams through various age groups, though one has just moved en block to another club due to rising costs! Their reward has been to relegate them from the A Division to the C Division!
We have recently just moved back to a local sports centre after spending three seasons at a college owned facility. I'm told this was due to costs.
A couple of seasons ago we were supposed to be forging links with a championship team. Initially they sent coaches to train our lads, but before long and after snaffling up the best players the coaching stopped. This was quite a troubled period anyway.
My sons age group were told that they must have three teams. It was blatantly obvious to all but the committee that this wasn't gong to happen. There simply wasn't enough players to go round. After parent pressure the committee finally relented and we carried on with two teams! Had the committee not backed down, they would have ended up with one team as several lads including my own had options to join another club.
This season has been difficult as we lost a striker who scored 55 goals for us last season. He was signed by a team that are an hours drive from our club. He lives a five minute walk away from our venue. The manager of the other team pursued him half of last season.He doesn't train for them, just starts every game! I wonder what the parents of other players think? I am careful not to name names as the secretary of the league has threatened me that if I name any club whilst making such accusations that my sons club could be fined! This despite the fact that I hold no post whatsoever within the club. She actually was very reluctant to back down over the two or three teams issue! I can back all of these claims up with solid evidence too!
During the season I give lifts to various players because believe it or not, some come from car less families or have siblings who play and parents need a hand to ensure they all get to play. It costs a small fortune in petrol too over the course of a season!
Our own team has a manager, but no coaches!! None at all! The manager is left to do everything! He puts hours of work into the team and I lend a hand by doing a weekly roll call on our closed facebook group so he knows if any of the team are going to be missing.
We have this weekend just narrowly lost our latest game but there is some controversy as it is alleged that the other team had and have all season been using a player who is a few days over age! Let's see if the league actually do anything about it if its proven to be true!
Over the course of the season we get scouts from three professional clubs. Every know and then they pick up players and the lucky ones get selected to play for an academy team! Or are they lucky? Although I support the idea of academies, i don't believe that players under the age of 14 should be recruited! If they join the professional club they train three times a week and are not allowed to play any other football. A friend of mine's son joined one and lasted two seasons. They nearly coached the football out of him! A 12 year old should be allowed to play football with their friends.
Anyway next time you see a football player moving for millions and no doubt earning millions, ask yourself why none of the games riches are finding their way to grass roots? Action needs to be taken sooner rather than later!
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