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Sport England Cuts FA Funding



1066familyman

Radio User
Jan 15, 2008
15,185
A BBC links here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26760067

http://www.thefa.com/news/2014/mar/fa-disappointed-sport-england-funding-cuts

Perhaps it will be the kick up the backside the FA needs. Their appraoch to grassroots football is half hearted in my opinion and as the governing body of a sport that has so much money swilling about at the top, quite frankly it's embarrassing.

A couple of points from the article immediately jump out to me:

F.A general secretary, Alex Horne - “Grassroots football is played on facilities almost exclusively owned and maintained by local authorities.

"A combination of severe weather, increased pitch hire costs and reduced maintenance spend has made this a very difficult time for clubs seeking to complete their fixtures and for individual players to value and enjoy regular football.

"This challenge – to ensure a much better provision of quality affordable grassroots facilities – is one we are determined to address..."





While a funding cut may not come as a huge surprise to the FA, it is nevertheless an embarrassing blow to a governing body which has identified growing the game's grassroots as one of its key roles.
But Sport England says the FA needs to follow the lead of other sports such as cricket, which have adapted the traditional form of the game to try to reach out to more people.




Having spent a good few years involved in grassroots football, as a parent, coach and manager I think the competitive league format as it is is tired and broken. The quality of coaching is poor, the faciltites are poor and the costs to parents are not cheap. So many parent managers out there that see nothing beyond a result rather than a footballing performance and learning experience. Nothing against parents getting involved (it's the route I went down) but why can't investent be made in quality coaching for starters. Let's invest in our youth and get teenagers coaching our kids. These youngsters are the future and should be given full support to climb the coaching ladder, working alongside experienced coaches where possible as they grow and develop. I believe these youngsters will bring a fresh approach, not only in terms of footballing ideas but in terms of slowing loosening the parent involvement in coaching and managing their own kids teams. Minimum standards need to be brought in too as we are way behind the rest of Europe in terms of numbers of level 2 and 3 coaches.

In terms of forms of the game being played by our kids - the F.A have taken years to catch up in terms of the nonsense of 11 aside for kids that are far too young for it. I think Futsal may be the future in terms of playing a much larger role and getting away from a dependence on nonsense 11 aside on shite pitches in freezing cold weather. Funnily enough, F.A coaching courses, which are generally very good, put huge emphasis on small sided games in coaching yet then seem to abandon the idea as a format for competition.

Just a few brief thoughts. What say you?
 




drew

Drew
Oct 3, 2006
23,007
Burgess Hill
Isn't this a bit of a knee jerk reaction? St Georges is all about training coaches who can then train other coaches etc. You can't snap your fingers and overnight have the same number of coaches as they have on the continent. Also, the report is apparently based on the over 16s so how are they measuring grass roots which is surely key stage 2 children when you are going to get them interested in the game. The drop in numbers is 5% which is considerable less than some other sports and is based on a comparison with last year which followed the olympics. I'd like to see the numbers for the previous 10 years as I have seen reported that it was over 2m in 2006 so that in 8 years it may well have only lost 160k!!!!
 


SweatyMexican

Well-known member
Mar 31, 2013
4,099
Last year I played football for an under 17 side. Most of their fixtures were cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch and I had to pay £90 quid + £3 a game for the privilege.

I enjoyed it when I played, but the facilities were really below par in my opinion.
 


seagullsovergrimsby

#cpfctinpotclub
Aug 21, 2005
43,690
Crap Town
Grass roots football would become popular again if the Premier League handed over more cash to subsidise the game at the base of the pyramid.
 



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