Football - Parklife is dwindling in town, say concerned county chiefs (From Ledbury Reporter)
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Football - Parklife is dwindling in town, say concerned county chiefs
11:00am Friday 4th January 2013 in Sport
Football - Parklife is dwindling in town, say concerned county chiefs
POOR attitudes and a lack of player commitment are leading to the demise of parks football in Worcestershire.
That is the view being put forward by two of the county’s major competitions after seeing teams drop out.
The Worcester and District League, which involves Malvern clubs, have lost eight sides across their Saturday and Sunday divisions since June, the latest being Wychbold RBL Reserves in the Sunday Premier.
In the Kidderminster and District League, the number of teams playing on a Saturday has fallen by seven from last season.
Officials have met with the Worcestershire FA to discuss the issue, highlighting several factors for the decline.
Chief among them is a perceived apathy among youngsters committing to teams or helping to run clubs.
Coupled with the cost of pitch hire and the continuing demands on people’s leisure time, including indoor evening leagues, it paints a depressing picture.
Kidderminster League secretary Ernie Pyke, who has been in the position for more than 30 years, is particularly concerned at players’ attitudes.
“It’s an accumulation of various things,” he said. “I think the main one is we have got facilities for players but nobody is prepared to look after them.
“Nobody is prepared to take on the office of secretary or manager at clubs.
“It’s not like the good, old days when you wanted to play football, now they don’t care if they turn up or not.
When I’ve been to referee games, I am used to listening to managers on their phone trying to get people to turn up to make up a team. The clubs are one-man bands.
“The youth of today would rather sit in front of a television or a laptop or wear their thumbs out sending text messages.”
He added: “It’s a national disease that football is in decline, especially on a Saturday.
“We want to do all we can to interest people to join the league. They would be very welcome.”
His thoughts are echoed by Worcester League secretary Tim Phillips who said: “There’s two main reasons that we have been told for clubs folding. It’s a total lack of commitment and apathy from the players.
“Certain players have no respect for people running the club and they are unreliable and don’t turn up for training. They don’t help with the running of the club and too much weight goes on one person and they get fed up.
“The second biggest reason I think is financial. There isn’t that much money about and one secretary said some players can’t afford to pay their £5 match fees.
“Other reasons are the poor standard of football compared to 15 years ago and poor facilities. There are also time constraints and pressure from partners.”
The Birdseye Sports Evesham Sunday League saw two of their established teams, Red Horse and Black Bear, drop out before the season started but secretary Martin Malin felt the competition was in good shape.
He said it had taken on several teams following the closure of the Cheltenham Sunday League.
Worcestershire FA football development manager Andy Norman admitted there was a problem but reckoned the county was in good health.
“Although there is a national trend in teams being lost, ours is good on the whole,”
he said.
“Are we offering the right things out there that would attract people to come and play?
“We are not sitting back and resting on our laurels and saying what we were providing 30 years ago works now.
We might have to do things a bit differently so that’s what we are looking at and then we can put things in place.”
However, the Mercian Festival Junior League, the largest youth set-up in the county which involves many teams from the Malvern area, seems to be bucking the trend.
For although they have seen teams drop out due to lack of players or coaches, there are currently more sides taking part than last year, 210 compared to 195.
They have also introduced an under 16s division for girls in a bid to enhance the women’s game.
Secretary George Silverman said: “We expect teams to withdraw, it’s not unusual, but more have withdrawn this season than last.
“Although more have withdrawn, there are more participating teams than last season.”
But he added: “It’s important for everybody to look after these young players and make sure they carry on, and it’s the same for young referees.”
* What do you think? Contact us at sport@malvern gazette.co.uk or at the Malvern Gazette sportdesk, Berrows House, Hylton Road, Worcester, WR2 5JX
Anonymouse:) says...
5:01pm Tue 8 Jan 13
Please feel free to publish this, BUT I wish to remain anonymous as I do not want my friend's team, or my own, to get into trouble!
My friends side has had 4 games in 11 weeks. Weather or not, that is unacceptable when the next worse "record" is 7 in 11. If fixtures are not fairly allocated and in good order players will not stay interested. More friendlies and fixtures are needed with better structure!
Onto getting money from players.
£5 is not a bad shout for subs but to suggest players can't afford this is horse mess. I have carried players for over 20 years and if you, they and the rest of the team want to play you would find a way. £3 a game is ample. £30 ref, £30 pitch, home one week if the fixtures are sorted, away the next (no cost to the side in question!!) 11 players minimum!!!!?? £66 = £6 profit for kit wash balls etc!! Not rocket science. Manager's on phones half hour before kick off is, and ALWAYS will be, part of the fun and joy!
If cups are clogging up fixtures then make one cup for the first half of the season, bar the final played at the end with the rest. Done, simple. Tell league sides they may only enter one other cup for the remainder of the season. You should sit out no more than 2 weeks in any one season this way AND that should not happen more than once unless you do terrifically well!! Which only a few would be able to!!!!
Tim's nonsensical rant about the standard dropping is just that, nonsense. I have played, ran and managed sides over 25 years and the standard is better, if anything. Some sides in Division Four on a Sunday would trounce my (much) silverware winning side of 2002 (??), and that's no disrespect to them, it's a fact. The Prem is now very strong and one or two sides would make the grade on a Saturday at a very decent level. Some real gems play in the lower leagues now for fun more than anything, AND are paid in some instances by the OTHER sub paying players.
The main reason the league is diminishing is because of the people running it. Saying people would rather sit texting at home, the standard is poor and attitudes are bad, is exactly what I said, more nonsense. A bitter man sits on the end of those comments, probably at wits end. My advise is to listen more, to people who would not let clubs fold if their own finance depended on it!
If Wychbold Reserves needed players then at the next delegates meeting I know, AT LEAST, a dozen sides who could have supplied players to keep them afloat.
They did not ask the question though.
There has ALWAYS been and ALWAYS will be time constraints and pressure from partners! George Silverman states the obvious point, "Why are more sides like Leigh and Bransford u16's not making the transition to adult football?" Why is more not being made to make this easier for new sides to do this and WHY ARE THE FINES SO INCREDIBLY HIGH WHEN THE COUNTY F.A. and W&DFL ARE ALWAYS IN PROFIT?!??!?! A little back at grassroots would not hurt!!!!!!??
I am more than passionate about my football and local football in particular but get threatened, fined and ignored for my passion. I hope you publish my points and the local footballing community do something to help action them! Many thanks, Vive La Fusebal!