Development
Officiating
Indoor soccer
Any other soccer functions that are nationally specific
In England, this is the FA; in Scotland it is the SFA.
Without any of this, football would not be the same as it is today.
Grassroots
In Gloucestershire, there are different leagues for different age groups. For the Under-9’s, Under 10’s and Under-11’s, there is a North, South and central league, For the Under-12’s, there is only one league.
Nationally, there are many academies and centers of excellence, but there are also lots of small league clubs that run Under-10 football games, such as the Surrey Primary League Premier Division. There are 11 teams in this league, which is lead by the Woking Cougars.
The local Football Association such as the Gloucestershire FA, or the FA itself runs most of these.
Although there are many small clubs, there is also a lot of funding from sources such as the Football Foundation. An example of this type of funding is the Junior Kit Scheme; this is a scheme to support Under 18 teams and adults with disabilities, by offering free kit and/or equipment up to the value of £400. The voucher can be exchanged with our nominated supplier - Nike. Schools may only receive one grant every three years. Clubs may apply for two vouchers every three years, as long as one application is for a girls’ team, and the other is for a boys’ team.
Elite
The Elite players such as Thierry Henry and Ruud van Nistelrooy, have all gone through a development program. Here is a flow chart to show how players have got from playing for a local team, to becoming a Nationally known Elite player:
Many Elite players get sponsorship from a variety of companies. For example David Beckham has sponsorship deals with Pepsi and Adidas. He makes millions of pounds a year, just from wearing clothes or shoes from a certain company. Along with personal sponsorship for some players, there is also sponsorship for teams. For example, Vodaphone and Nike sponsor Manchester United.
Local Provision
In Gloucestershire, there are many leagues, all different types of people, ranging from the Men’s Leagues, to the Women’s Leagues, to the Children’s leagues.
There are lots of different levels, ranging from the bottom, such as Longlevens, all the way to the national leagues, such as Cheltenham Town.
National Provision
There are over 40,000 clubs in 2200 leagues. The approximation for the number of players by the FA is 3 million. There are 11500 registered coaches. They range in size from the billion pound professional clubs like Manchester United to a tiny youth clubs from rural villages.
The most recognizable of all the clubs are the top domestic league professional clubs. The League Table is structured with the Premiership and then the Divisions. This is a table of how it is structured:
Additional Agencies
There are many different additional agencies in England, such as:
Sport England
Youth Sports Trust
English Federation for Disabled Sport
Active sports
National Coaching Foundation
Sport England
Sport England is the strategic lead for delivering the Government's sporting objectives in this country, and they distribute both Lottery and Exchequer funds to sport. Their vision is to make England an active and successful sporting nation
Sport England is the nation's biggest supporter. Since 1994, they have invested some £2 billion into sport in England.
Sport England distributes the funds for sport via the Lottery Sports Fund (LSF). Lottery funded capital projects range across the whole range of sports facility provision, from local to international, with priority given to projects that benefit the whole community. Revenue funding is available to elite-level sports men and women to assist with training, coaching and travelling. To date, over £779 million has been distributed to community sports since its inception and £20 million in revenue awards have been made available for sport in England through the Sport England’s Lottery Sports Fund.
Male and Female Provision
In England, there are many professional and amateur men’s teams, from non-league teams, such as Hendon FC, where players have to work as well as play and train, all the way to the top of the league, to teams such as Manchester United and Arsenal, where players only train and play.
However, for women there are not as many opportunities. There are only a few professional clubs, such as Charlton and Everton. However, there are an increasing number of women’s amateur clubs, and in Gloucestershire alone, there are 18 women’s amateur clubs.
Disabled Football
Disabled Football in the UK has recently been re-developed. The FA has linked up with One2One, one of the FA’s sponsors, and the English Federation of Disability Sport, national body responsible for developing sport for disabled people in the UK.
The One2One Ability Counts Football Development programme was officially launched in February 2000. The programme was established because there was no structures development programme in England for disabled people.
At present, there are 45 professional clubs (including ½ in the Premiership) around the country that coach football as a part of the Ability Counts.
Critical Analysis
In general, I think that football is possibly one of the world’s best-governed sports. It is also, obviously a very popular sport, not only with men, but ever increasingly with women as well, even though there are many more men’s clubs than women’s. However, there are an increasing number of both male and female clubs in England.
I think that this is helped by the fact the football in England is one of the most publicised of sports in England, not only on TV, but also on the radio and in magazines. Especially nowadays, when there are so many role models that little children want to be like, such as Thierry Henry.
Locally, in Gloucestershire there are a lot of football clubs, for both males and females, this is good, as there are so many people, of different skill abilities, that want to participate in football. The additional agencies, that help not only with the sponsorship and monetary sides of football, but who also do a lot more, also help with the upkeep of football in the UK, and help teams who cannot afford equipment or Kit. England is one of the few nations that actually have these types of additional agencies, especially for football. For disabled players, there aren’t a lot of football type activities to participate in, however the number of teams that are starting to include the ‘ability counts’ is on the increase dramatically. Overall, football is a worldwide sport that is played and enjoyed by all, and all types of people can participate, which is the main factor.
Bibliography
www.sportengland.org.uk
