My son's Under 9s match has just been called off...

[BigGully]

And the Dutch have plenty of flat all weather pitches and another problem these facilities need Floodlights and nobody wants to be near them.

Be careful when discussing the Dutch model, you might find yourself over there and see that actually they have some good facilities and some poor ones just like over here.

If you think every team has Ajax coaching and playing styles you might be disappointed, only last year a linesman was killed after being attacked by a youth player, hardly total football that day.

They just instinctively prefer different attributes in a player than we do and that translates into a different style of play, thats the key.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Trouble is though is that they are right. We don't expect supermarkets to give out cheap food to the poor or garages to provide cheap petrol to good causes so why should privately owned football clubs? In actual fact they do quite a lot in the community but they are not obliged.

What we should be demanding is that Governments both national and local provide services and facilities that we want instead of wasting vast sums on things that we don't, like say nuclear weapons or bailing out other failing private companies like banks. It should be mind numbingly bloody obvious that providing great sporting facilities to people is likely to make them more healthy and therefore less likely to use other expensive services such as the NHS...

It is wrong to blame the PL for the ills of grass roots football, this is the fault of successive governments and politics in general...

That is all rather simplistic though. We can demand all we like but the money only stretches so far. The top clubs only do things in the community one, because they get grants to do so and secondly, they hope they uncover the next super star with scant regard to the welfare of the majority and only a little bit more regard to those they pursue. Had a very interesting chat with Dean Wilkins recently and he will lecture (let me get on my soapbox were his exact words) anyone who gives him the time about all that is wrong with professional clubs and their approach to youth players. He's is so right in what he says and is very much the right person in the wrong place i.e coaching seniors at Reading.

There is so much wrong with the governing bodies. As I posted above it's the FA not the Premiership who should be leading the way. The Sussex FA is awash with funds yet all it offers is one pitch at Lancing, and not a good one either. The FA could and should arrange a levy with the The Premiership that goes straight to grassroots youth football. Make a huge issue about it, embarrass these clubs into properly getting behind it and not paying lip service. Frankly I'm not interested much in the national side but am in local football particularly youth, however invest properly and years to come the pool of good well coached players will happen.

Living in the Hastings area I can honestly say there is not one decent authority owned ground, similar to when I grew up in Horsham, shocking pitches such as Horsham Park. Due to no maintenance some of the goal areas resemble open cast mining. I said before and say again build on these useless muddy slopes the kids/men are expected to play on, in turn get the developers to build purpose built sports grounds and with FA money sodding well maintain them.

 

[Hampster Gull]

Could do a one off tax on the deal, rake in a billion or two and invest in amateur football. A Labour government might be interested

 

[Seasidesage]

That is all rather simplistic though. We can demand all we like but the money only stretches so far. The top clubs only do things in the community one, because they get grants to do so and secondly, they hope they uncover the next super star with scant regard to the welfare of the majority and only a little bit more regard to those they pursue. Had a very interesting chat with Dean Wilkins recently and he will lecture (let me get on my soapbox were his exact words) anyone who gives him the time about all that is wrong with professional clubs and their approach to youth players. He's is so right in what he says and is very much the right person in the wrong place i.e coaching seniors at Reading.

There is so much wrong with the governing bodies. As I posted above it's the FA not the Premiership who should be leading the way. The Sussex FA is awash with funds yet all it offers is one pitch at Lancing, and not a good one either. The FA could and should arrange a levy with the The Premiership that goes straight to grassroots youth football. Make a huge issue about it, embarrass these clubs into properly getting behind it and not paying lip service. Frankly I'm not interested much in the national side but am in local football particularly youth, however invest properly and years to come the pool of good well coached players will happen.

Living in the Hastings area I can honestly say there is not one decent authority owned ground, similar to when I grew up in Horsham, shocking pitches such as Horsham Park. Due to no maintenance some of the goal areas resemble open cast mining. I said before and say again build on these useless muddy slopes the kids/men are expected to play on, in turn get the developers to build purpose built sports grounds and with FA money sodding well maintain them.

Trust me I was youth team Manager at Lancing once upon a time and nobody could hold the suits at the FA in more contempt than me! The way they run football in Sussex is a disgrace as well as a throwback to the 1950's. Their pitch is also one of the better ones despite being built over a dry river bed! Selsey and a considerable number of the other grounds are dangerous never mind unfit for football or at least they were a few years back when I last visited.

Fact is though, that maintaining public leisure facilities is a responsibility of local authorities, they are happy to collect the money for doing so and should have a duty of care to provide safe facilities which many fail to do. I don't think my argument is simplistic at all. There is a finite amount of money available of course, it is where that money is allocated that matters and very little is directed towards football, unlike say Rugby facilities which seem far superior in my admittedly limited experience.

Until we allocate resources to things that actually matter to working people who still make up the majority of the voting population then we will continue to have shortages of facilities for children especially. Blaming a group of private companies for the failure of the government to allocate resources properly is wrong IMO at least. Football clubs still pay VAT and all the other taxes asked of them unlike many major multi nationals who evade their responsibilities.

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

It's not likely to get better when Scudamore couldn't give a t0ss that cleaners at Premiership grounds get paid less than £6.50 an hour. He's hardly going to worry about kids' football is he?

 

[Creaky]

If the government put a suitably sized 3G facility in every primary/middle and senior school in the country, which could also be used at weekends by outside clubs, how much money would be saved in the future on a decrease in teen crime and vandalism?

All the time kids are playing sport, at any level, almost all of the are developing into well rounded young adults.

Great idea but do you realise how much that would cost!

A full size 3G pitch costs in the area of £500,000 to install properly with the proper drainage and lighting. If school pitches were half size or smaller you'd still be looking at £200k or more.

Now multiply that by the 21,000 primary, middle and senior schools in the UK and you end up with a figure of somewhere between four and ten billion pounds!

 

[BN9 BHA]

Perhaps kids football should be a summer sport. Better chance of playing then.

This would be a good idea but many clubs have tournaments in the summer, usually 5 or 6 a side matches but the matches don't last long. But I have spent all day at many tournaments with my sons.

I think these tournaments are a good fund raiser for junior football clubs.