FIFA is the major governing body for the sport on a worldwide basis, and some of the ideas are turning into long term goals which will be achieved over a relatively long period of time:- construction and renovation of football pitches and training centres, setting up administration for national and regional associations, increasing sport education, including sports medicine, refereeing and coaching. They also want to increase the number of youth training centres, and to have more provision in schools and also to have more centres of Excellence for elite performers. Grass Roots Development was one of the good causes to benefit from lottery funding when set up by the government in 1995.
‘Active sports’ is another organization, which is closely linked with Grass Roots Development and lottery funding.
From my own personal experience of playing football for Keswick, I found there was an opportunity to play football from the age of eight to eighteen, and for adult’s as well. However, the funds for equipment is raised by a football committee, which is mostly composed of parents of the junior footballers, through local based events such as coffee mornings.
The club also receives sponsorship for its match ball and its team strip. Sponsors are found in the form of local based businesses such as the ‘Mike Ryder insurance company’ and the ‘Derwent Men’s Club’. Keswick School also helps them by allowing them to use the school pitches. With help from local funding, they now have a permanent football pitch in Fitz Park at Keswick. Other locally based football events include training days or weeks organized by football clubs such as Carlisle United and Workington Reds. Larger football clubs from further afield, such as Blackburn Rovers, have organized coaching sessions in Keswick which the club funds itself as a form of promotion.
Sport England along with Youth Sport Trust formed a group called ‘Top Play’ which teaches sports skills to children under nine, within primary schools, including skills like striking and
Kicking a football. The program has been devised to support the national curriculum as a resource for teachers. They supply schools across the country with equipment ranging from footballs to mini markers Etc. and are designed to introduce children to essential sporting skills for sports like football. They also give training to teachers. Sport England mostly funds this. The Active Communities Fund is another agency which has been set up to raise the participation in sports such as football for certain groups of people, which include ethnic minorities, women and girls football, those on low incomes and people with disabilities.
I did some research on the provision of football for the disabled and received a reply to my e-mail from a member of the EFDS, giving me a substantial amount of information on this matter.
Until the development of the One to One Counts program about a year ago, there was hardly any co-ordinated football development for the disabled people of England. Now they have the opportunity to develop from local club level to national level. The program is very successful and promotes football opportunities at Grass Root Level across many disabilities including:- Amputees, cerebal palsy, learning disability, blind, partially blind and deaf. These six impairment groups have a team at national level. At present fifty professional clubs are delivering sessions to people with disabilities and there will be more soon.
A representative of the EFDS told me that 1.3 million pounds will be put into the program over the next three years. The FA sponsors this and supports these disabled teams with kit, medical sources, physio and funding to various tournaments. The EFDS said there was, at present, little support for disabled football in Cumbria. There are plans to talk with the regional officer in the Northwest and the local county FA to launch the program in the area.
The representative quoted that “The program can only get bigger as we have only scratched the surface”.
Nationally, there is a large increase in women’s football teams and it is the most popular sport played by women in England. There are also national leagues, European competitions, such as UEFA, and world class football. There are more opportunities for women to play professional football in urban areas rather than in rural localities. The emphasis is still much more on youth development and youth excellence football program’s within the male community, and at present this is not happening to the same extent for women.
At the present time, football is far more accessible for males than for females, especially on a local level in Cumbria. The number of women’s football clubs is very low, and the only realistic chance of progressing to elite levels is through schools, which have teams in organized leagues, or individuals which are able to make district and county levels. I found out of that the majority of girls football clubs are in larger areas as the popularity of football in rural areas for women is low, which is either due to lack of motivation to compete in the sport or that the facilities are inadequate. The nearest major clubs of significance were in Bolton and Newcastle, but I found info on a team in Lancashire trying to set up a league for women. However the most local basis for women’s football in the area is Carlisle, which has recently staged its first youth all girls game of football, of the Carlisle glass youth football league. The league intends to have under 12’s and under 10’s girl’s leagues running by early 2003.
Also in Carlisle there is a football development program being set up for girls on the astro- turf pitch at Caldew School, which is being held for 10 weeks. It features coaching by qualified FA coaches, and also coaching is available for ladies wishing to set up there own football team. The provision in the area as a whole for women is not very good as the number of organized events is almost obsolete, with hardly any provision for ladies to play the sport, above adolescence.
Hopefully the differences will eventually balance out.
I think on a whole the provision for football to be played by all participants is increasing on a national basis. In my local area I think that the provision for football for males especially of any ages is very good and the equipment and strips which the teams are supplied with is very professional. A number of facilities are available to the use of the keswick football teams including pavilion’s both in the local park at Keswick, were there is a pitch right next to it, and also at Braithwaite. Both of these are open to members of the keswick football squad and provide showers, which is very adequate for matches in bad conditions. There are a number of fields, which can be used around the area including one in the local park, the three school pitches and one at Braithwaite. The national provision for football over England and Britain for men is really good and there is many clubs which are accessible easily, and there is now an increase in the development of women’s clubs and disabled football across the country. However locally there is little provision for disabled people and for girls in Cumbria at the moment. However this is to change especially for disabled people as I found ideas for promotion from a member of the efds.
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