The County Football Associations are also responsible for the development of players at local level, for example:
- Organising coaching
- Organising Mini-Soccer Tournaments
- Women’s and Girl’s football
- Training Programmes for referees and First-Aides
In the County Football Association it is the responsibility of the Technical director to oversee the development of football all the way from ‘grass roots’ all the way to the highest level, National. They are guided through the centres of excellence which, as with any specialised college, are aimed specifically at training the young footballers into stars. Many of the big Football clubs have their own youth training facilities, for examples in the English Premier League Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool all have established youth centres.
The County Football Association still has a lot of work delegated to them, each year £30 million will be channelled by the F.A into grassroots as part of a process that will eventually improve the standard of our pitches, changing rooms and facilities around the country. The F.A has a fantastic programme known as, ‘F.A Top Sport Football’ which is designed to benefit every school kid. The F.A are proposing that over the next three years they will invest £6 million pounds, to provide all primary and special schools with football equipment, teacher training, and resources.
Sports England and the National Lottery are pumping another £8 Million into the game to set up new leagues and teams for women and for girls, to give them better opportunities in football.
Nationwide recently has announced that it is making a £750,000 investment into womens football. This money is to help to set up youth set ups all over the UK, to help the coaching of womens football. Research on behalf of the F.A has shown that 1.4 million girls have taken part in some sort of football activities on a regular basis.
This survey found that 85 per cent of girls aged between seven and fifteen in england had taken part in some sort of football activity in recent months. As much as 65 per cent of that age group are playing at least once a week a figure of 1.4 million. The figures for 2001-2002 season was 90,000 girls played competitive football.
The F.A are now aiming to get those girls involved in regular,organised club football through the new campaign 'join a squad' which also seeks to target those who have drifted away from the game in recent years. They will do this through advertisment through the world cup initial group stages and will direct them to the revamp and relauched F.A website. The F.A uses a new strategic departure to promote the grassroots game and has recently increased levels of football through England of both male an female and disabled football.
- PROVISION IN MY LOCAL AREA
In Kent the provisions for football are fairly good, with many villages and towns having their own football clubs. Many villages also have their own football pitches. I went round to five of my local Villages looking for any evidence of a football pitch or club.
Cranbrook – Football Pitch, club
Sandhurst – Football Pitch, club
Goudhurst – Football Pitch
Hawkhurst – Football Pitch, club
Tenterden – Football Pitch, club
These results show that there is good support in this area of Kent for Football, with fairly enthusiastic participants. The pitch at Sandhurst is remarked every season. This however really is exceptional, and I would not expect the other pitches to be of such a high standard. In our local area (the weald), as far as I can find out, there are only three all weather astro-turfs. There is one in Cranbrook, at our own school, there is one at Sutton Valance School and there is one at Marlborough House Prep School.
If you move further afield there are lots of astro turfs, in Ashford, Tunbridge Wells, and some water based astro used primarily for Hockey in Canterbury.
There are no disabled football teams in the weald. There is a men’s physically handicapped football team in Ashford, but aside from discovering they exist I could not find any other information on them. Chelsea football club has a very successful disabled team, who are the European Champions. On the international front Scotland has a Cerebral Palsy Squad, who compete in international tournaments.
The provision for football players in the UK is much higher than that of other sports. Everybody who would, or could wish to play football is catered for. We have the Premier League, first division, second division, third division, and amateur leagues. That’s just the men! We also have leagues for girls, boys, women and disabled people.
Football has an organised controlling body, the Football Association, who strive to provide facilities for anyone who might need them, and anybody is free to use them.
It is the development of players that really is the only let down to the English system, with the coaching of players being sadly lacking. There are though moves to remedy that situation, with many of the major English clubs making efforts to develop their own players, by bringing them up through the ranks of their own clubs, and coaching them up to first team level. It is these efforts by English clubs that will hopefully bring the standard of England’s international team up. A good example of a training camp that seems to be having some effect can be seen at Manchester United. The example set by them is exemplary with the nurturing of such players as David Beckham, Paul Scholes and the Neville Brothers being an image of the kind of talent that England can produce.
