Local and National Provision of football in the UK.

AS and A Level Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)

Steff Reed

Local and National Provision of football in the UK

Football in the UK is governed by the Football Association (FA) which is responsible for ensuring the laws of the game are used and that rules and regulations for running football are applied by officials, clubs and players. At grass roots level (local level) there are 43 county football associations, these are independent and affiliated to the FA. The Kent FA carries out tasks such as organisation of competition and leagues; registration of players and match officials and development of football at local level in conjugation with the Sports Development officers of the local Borough Councils. Union European Football Association (UEFA) is the Governing body of European Football, and is linked with the top federations of each county e.g. FA. Federation International Football Association (FIFA), is the international governing body of football and is linked with the UFEA. The structure of European Sport is shown in a pyramid (see appendix 1).

Grass roots level is the first level of participation where a footballer plays for fun and recreation. This includes schools, local clubs and local leagues. In this area, Tonbridge, the facilities for playing football at grass roots are good, as there are two large areas of marked out football pitches, Tonbridge Park and North Farm. However flooding of the park by the river Medway makes the pitches unplayable. Most of the Primary and Secondary Schools in the area offer football to boys and girls, often as an after school activity. These school teams compete against each other, often through school leagues.

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Boys under 16 are able to play youth football for teams outside of school. The league for under 8 –11 is the Invicta Primary league and is 7 a-side. While under 11- 18 play in the Crowborough or Tandridge league (see appendix 2). However once a boy plays for under 17 or 18 it is no longer youth football. Each of the age groups are divided into 3 divisions and the top two teams are promoted and the bottom two are relegated. The progression for a boy for this grass root level is to inter league, where the best players from each age group in each league are selected. From here the player are selected to play for county, Kent or region, South East team. Talented young players between the age of 11 and 16 can be scouted by the league clubs to play for a Centre of Excellence or a football Academy. There are 39 football Academies, all the Premiership clubs and 19 Football League clubs have one. All the other Football League clubs have Centres of Excellence. When the player reaches 16 he is either offered a professional contract with the club or told that he is no longer needed. The top level that a player can reach, having turned professional, is to represent their country e.g. England from the age of 17.

Men’s football is 16 or over, and can be either played at a professional or amateur level. The levels of men’s football are divided into a pyramid of 10 levels (see appendix 3). The top 5 usually have professional footballers playing. The league below these, contain clubs in which the players are amateur. In Tonbridge the town team is Tonbridge Angels, which is in the Dr Martens Eastern Division (level 7) and are hoping to be promoted into the Premier Division (level 6), this season.

Girl’s football in the UK has become more popular over the last few years. The provision for girls to play football has also increased. Up to the age of 11 a girl can play football with boys and now at primary school level this is often the case. In Kent there is one girls league, Kent Girls league for under 8 – 15. Unlike boys the FA rules states girls have to play 7 a – side football until the age of 14 whereas it is 11 for boys. The number of clubs available for girls is very limited in Kent (see appendix 4). The professional clubs in the men’s game, to improve the profile of female football, have introduced Centres of Excellence. The players are often scouted like boys between the age of 11 – 16; Charlton Athletic and Arsenal are example in the south east. Sports England introduced an initiative to promote specific sports, the programme was called Active Sports, and it included female football. The local Borough Councils, set up teams of girls between the age of 14-16, they had to live or go to school in the Borough. Once a week there were training sessions until in the summer the County Youth Games were held, for all the Active Sports. All the teams from each Borough Council in Kent played in a tournament and the winner represented the county at the National Competition. There is only one professional womens team, Fulham FC and two semi-professional Arsenal FC and Doncaster Bells FC. These clubs have centre of excellence for under 16 girls. Many players go to America where the game is professional and as big as the male game is in Britain. Also at 16 players can join a football academy were they can continue to study at college but also play football, many clubs including, Arsenal and Charlton Athletic in the South East offer them. Loughborough University has a national player development squad, so players can continue with their education and develop their football. The FA developed a pyramid for the development of women’s football from grass roots to the elite level, playing for England (see appendix 5).

Ladies over 16, who have not gone to America or gone to an Academy, can still continue to play football. In Kent there are two leagues, Kent Suburban Ladies league and South East Counties. The winners in the top division of the South East Counties league play off other leagues in the South East to gain a place in the South East Combination League. From this the top 2 teams get promoted into the Premier league, which is divided into division, Southern and Northern and then the National League.

Football provision for people with learning disabilities is limited in the UK. The only league running is the National Multi Disabled league. In the South East, Chelsea and Wimbeldon FC both have a disabled football team, which play in the league. There are other clubs such as Brighton and Hove FC and Portsea Island but they do not play in the league. In Kent Nic Steerer is setting up a club, the Shepway Wanders Disable FC and hopes to join the National Multi Disabled league next season. Often players with learning disabilities play for non-disabled clubs, for instant Castle Colts Senior Ladies team has a player who is totally deaf. The club coach has learnt basic sign language and always speaks in front of the player as she can lip read. Players use signs and symbols to communicate with her during the match and training. Before each match the referee and other team have to be advised, as she cannot hear the whistle.

The provision for football in the UK is good, as there are boys/men’s leagues and girls/women’s league, both professional and amateur. The facilities are open to everyone, and the grass root level is good. However the development of players is not so good as top clubs in the Premiership buy in their players from around the world. Often in the UK the local provision is very dependent on volunteers. This is also often the case at the county level, so if there is no volunteer to run it, it doesn’t happen so that area then suffers as the player’s talent is not spotted and nurtured. However in France all public companies are expected to invest small percentage of the profits to a sports development fund which takes care of sports needs below international level. This clearly must have help as the French National football team won the world cup in 2000. Also many English clubs such as last seasons double winners of the Premiership and FA Cup, Arsenal FC, have a French manager and a French Captain along with other French players.

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