Professional clubs are helping aswell. Watford, a local club in the area helped promote the opening of the new Football Development Centre. A Watford FC XI played in an exhibition game to kick off the new project, which had been funded a £280,375 grant from the Football Foundation, the UK’s largest sports charity. Alot of the funds come from sponsorship aswell.
Provision for pathways for elite performers
There are many different pathways to choose from to reach a professional level of football. Schools have a system where you can get entered for district trials. If accepted you could then go on to play for county and then for either north,west,south or east of England. Once you have achieved this level of football, the pathway to become a professional becomes open.
Given the diversity of participation in football, The FA has taken action aswell. They have decided to adopt an 8 stage model of Long Term Player Development as shown below. This example describes an age appropriate development pathway over time. The recommendations for the younger age groups being aligned to the schools key stages wherever possible;
Stages 1-2: 5 to 11 year old primary school ages (small sided games played)
Stages 3-4: 11 to 16 year old secondary school ages (11 v 11 games played)
Stages 5-6: 16 to 20 year old school leaver age groups
Stage 7: 20+ the mature player example
Stage 8: Retention, for any participant who is retained within football
Introduction to Long Term ‘Player’ Development
Everyone has the opportunity for developing their own particular Long Term Player Development strand from the central programme with support from The FA as the national governing body. These days there are lots of opportunities to reach an elite level of performance for football. Everyone has the opportunity, it just requires a certain amount of ability and commitment. Once you have reached professional level, you could then go on to play nationaly for your country.
Provision for male/female competitors
Mens football is currently the most popular sport in the world. It is played and watched all over the globe with many large competitions taking place such as the (FIFA)World Cup and the (UEFA)Champions League. Although women's football is developing, it is still no way near as big as the mens game.
It is very easy to get started playing football for a male. But for a female there are a lot less opportunities. There are less clubs to attend for a female and not every school has a football club either,where as for males, the majority of them do. Although it may not be as big as Boys football, there are still hundreds of clubs round the country.Despite this, girls football is becoming increasingly popular though; In 2002 the Football Association announced that football had become the top sport for girls and women in the country.
Although it may not be as popular as Boys football, there are still hundreds of clubs round the country.
Provision for disabled participants
Flexibility has been built round the model I have shown above to accommodate the diverse needs of all players such as disabled participants. But prior to 1999, The Football Association support for Disability Football was limited.
Provision for disabled participants took a huge step when the FA were approached by EFDS (English Federation of Disability Sport)and asked if they would like to become partners in a national disability football programme called OnetoOne Ability Counts. Through funding from the Charity Shield, the programme was launched in 1999.
Since the early days of the programme, The NGB has developed Ability Counts as its national activity programme ensuring disabled people have opportunities to play and train on a local level. Although the FA are doing alot for the provision of disabled participants, they have limited resources and funding to ensure the benefits are there for the participants.
Analysis/Evaluation
Overall, I believe that due to the FA and other organisations such as FIFA, football is the most played sport in the world. These organizations have explored and opened up the local and national provision for football. They have played a huge part towards setting up clubs around the world and funding the game as a whole. I also think that the development of grassroots is what has made the sport so popular after so many years. Without grassroots programmes, I and many other kids would not have got involved in the game.
I conclude that in order for the game to grow, more needs to be done to encourage female and disabled people to get involved in the sport. I believe that more programmes should be set up to help these participants to take part. In order to sustain the growth of football that we are currently at, I think that more money needs to go in to female and disabled football. Although I cannot see female football becoming as popular as male football, I can definitely see it being one of the most popular sports in the world in the future.
Although NGB's have helped the growth of football all over the world, I also think that the increasing popularity is due to the beauty of the game.
Bibliography
http:// www.theFA.com
http://www.footballfoundation.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases
http://www.watfordfc.premiumtv.co.uk
http://www.disabilityfootball.co.uk/
http://www.UEFA.com
