a parent and grassroots coach
back to the development of the game spent through local county FAs and local councils. From time to time the FA and the Premier League will donate big sums of money to clubs, but they choose very badly. Full Charter standard clubs with their own private training pitches and close links with Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea etc do not need that money as desperately as the local clubs who play on rented council grounds. Every child should matter if we truly want to catch up with the rest of Europe.
Do you feel your county FA does enough in grassroots football?
No. In a word. Cheshire FA are actually not as bad as some of the horror stories I have heard about and been involved with but they are still a long way off. With Teams in Chester, North Wales and The Wirral I play under three different FAs, all of which scrape by and make their money. They make it very difficult for coaches to be involved, very expensive for the relevant qualifications and checks yet they return nothing.
For me the final nail on in the coffin was when coaching a junior referee and he told me he had been told by the FA he was not handing out enough Yellow/Red cards. It, to me, really hit home the mind-set of these organisations.
What funding do you think grassroots football needs?
For me it would be a shot in the dark to guess how much in terms of a number that grassroots needs, I can imagine it to be in the high millions.
Every council pitch needs dedicated times throughout the year for the grass to be cut and regular pitch markings. Pitches need changing rooms, draining facilities, new goalposts, general ground levelling out. The list goes on, and that is simply for the pitch and facilities. Coaches need to be given some guidance and hopefully one day we can ask for some financial help for coaches to be educated. If I was coaching the next Steven Gerrard they would quickly take him off me and pay him to play but yet I have to pay out of my own pocket to get a badge, do a course, register and simply travel to games and wash the kits.
What are you views on academies taking grassroots players?
Academies are an important part if developing players and taking them to the next level and eventually professional standard. I think the issues are two fold; firstly there are simply too many academies. Almost every professional team has an academy or school of excellence yet precisions few players make it to the first team because the top clubs players become available and they drop their own. Gone are the days where a player like Ian Wright can start from the local leagues and be noticed and go right to the top, because everyone who is
even half way good is in a pro club from the age of 6 or 7.
Secondly, and more importantly the age at which these players are being taken by a professional club and forced to travel long distances several times a week is beyond silly. At 6 years old there is no way a player can show if he will be a future England international – because anything can happen. If you put that amount of pressure on a child, tear them away from their friends and force get them only to play for a professional club there is a much higher chance of them simply walking away from the game.
If academies were smaller, only taking children in high school and were fewer and further between I don’t think the issue would be the same because there is no doubt that the children receive great coaching. A school of excellence taking a child as young as 6 then deciding at 11 (s)he isn’t good enough and letting them go is terrible. The game that we all grew up loving should be allowed to be enjoyed by all; that is the real meaning of football for me.