Spoony Posted June 9, 2023 Share Posted June 9, 2023 I am potentially taking up a role at a football association and I’m interested to know what people’s thoughts are on the state of grassroots football, what the issues are that people are seeing and suggestions people have for improvement (any ideas welcome). My direct involvement in grassroots football in the north west is almost overwhelmingly negative. Horrendous parents in kids games, drunken violent people in adult games, awful abuse to young referees, etc. The only positive I can even think of is that the volunteers at local clubs work bloody hard to keep them going. Thought the level headed folk of VT would be a good sounding board and forum to discuss this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted June 9, 2023 Share Posted June 9, 2023 (edited) I did some coaching a few yrs back, some of the parents were absolute scum. If I wasn’t screaming blue murder at the kids, I apparently wasn’t encouraging them and to quote “a **** useless word removed”. Yep that was worth me giving up me an evening a week and Sunday mornings for that. It’s really hard to govern, and really not sure how you’d go about changing it. But it certainly happens, and we do lose willing coaches/refs because of it. Edited June 10, 2023 by mikeyp102 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest av1 Posted June 10, 2023 Share Posted June 10, 2023 I think grassroots referees should be issued with tasers, and be allowed to use it on any loud mouthed word removed of a parent that abuses them. Any kids swearing, diving or lashing out should be hung upside down from the crossbar and have a full tube of deep heat rubbed into their boll##ks (Phillip Schofield is looking for a new role and is based up north) 6 hours ago, Spoony said: Thought the level headed folk of VT would be a good sounding board and forum to discuss this! Oh ok, maybe I’m not the best person to ask Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted June 10, 2023 Share Posted June 10, 2023 Parents and coaches are the main problem. There’s a local side here and their manager infamous for his constant berating of the referee and his team. He’s relentless, and guess what… he runs the local referees courses! Id like to see a zero policy of parents or coaches shouting at the referee (apart from requesting a substitution). If anyone shouts at him or appeals a decision they have to leave the pitch, simple. My lad will be 14 next year and he wants to do the refereeing course to make a bit of money. I have very mixed feelings on this. 100% I’ll have to be with him at all times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoony Posted June 10, 2023 Author Share Posted June 10, 2023 30 minutes ago, Genie said: Parents and coaches are the main problem. There’s a local side here and their manager infamous for his constant berating of the referee and his team. He’s relentless, and guess what… he runs the local referees courses! Id like to see a zero policy of parents or coaches shouting at the referee (apart from requesting a substitution). If anyone shouts at him or appeals a decision they have to leave the pitch, simple. My lad will be 14 next year and he wants to do the refereeing course to make a bit of money. I have very mixed feelings on this. 100% I’ll have to be with him at all times. I was a referee. I would honestly encourage him not to do it. It was awful when I did it and I dread to think how bad it is now. Things have regressed enormously. I had full grown semi drunk men starting on me at 14 years old. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlack Posted June 10, 2023 Share Posted June 10, 2023 Absolutely improve the protection for referees, with enforceable punishment for those that take it to far. The disgusting amount of money at the top level needs to properly flow down to the grass roots level... but it never will because people will always find a way to play football, and the biggest clubs will always find a way to scout out the best talent. Other than that, football is really the most accessible and affordable sport there is. There are many more sports in the country that really need help, so not really sure I expect much more in the way of grass roots football development. It would be nice if it focuses on a national style of play that we could feed into our future national team, but think we're in the realms of fantasy there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoony Posted June 10, 2023 Author Share Posted June 10, 2023 12 hours ago, MrBlack said: The disgusting amount of money at the top level needs to properly flow down to the grass roots level... but it never will because people will always find a way to play football, and the biggest clubs will always find a way to scout out the best talent. So I think this is the biggest challenge. The real results come from the top and flow down. I want to try and influence football from grassroots and somehow make the county an example but that seems impossible. But I really want to try my best. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StewieGriffin Posted June 10, 2023 Share Posted June 10, 2023 Jumpers for goalposts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlack Posted June 11, 2023 Share Posted June 11, 2023 18 hours ago, Spoony said: So I think this is the biggest challenge. The real results come from the top and flow down. I want to try and influence football from grassroots and somehow make the county an example but that seems impossible. But I really want to try my best. I should explain that, with the comment you've quoted, I meant that there is zero incentive for the teams at the top to support the game at the bottom. They won't benefit from it. So they will do token gestures, and the real money will never leave the PL. I don't know how much incentive you can have from the bottom up... but if you ever manage to do it you'll be a hero. My last comment might be a way to do it.... a national identity to our style of play. A way of playing that is coached throughout the country from day 0. But again, its only the national team that benefits, the PL won't, so they won't want to fund it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HalfTimePost Posted June 11, 2023 Share Posted June 11, 2023 Smaller pitches, coaches all with badges, all coaching a style of play that improves passing and close control on those smaller pitches. I'm sure some of those things are happening nowadays but it would be good too see and hear more of. Plus the respect for referees Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted June 12, 2023 Share Posted June 12, 2023 9 hours ago, HalfTimePost said: Smaller pitches, coaches all with badges, all coaching a style of play that improves passing and close control on those smaller pitches. I'm sure some of those things are happening nowadays but it would be good too see and hear more of. Plus the respect for referees When I was a lad we played on full sized pitches from the get go (as far as I can remember). Its much better now, through the junior age groups the teams and pitches gradually get bigger (5 a-side, 7 a-side, 9 a-side, then finally 11a-side). Big one for me is coaches or parents shouting at the referee, it should be zero tolerance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted June 12, 2023 Share Posted June 12, 2023 Silent sidelines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrUnKeNbUm Posted June 12, 2023 Share Posted June 12, 2023 I coach an U9 (U10 next season) They play 7v7 at the moment and for me the biggest issue is the lack of refs. There are 3 or 4 clubs local to us that have 5 different teams for each age group, because these clubs make a decent amount of money from the 40+ kids they have on the books at each age level they seem to have an agreement with the F.A so every week they get appointed a ref. For context my lads played 24 games this season, we were appointed a ref only twice, no suprise they were when we played teams that are in the pocket of the F.A. The majority of the time we are scraping round to try and get someone to referee a game, if we dont get one then its luck of the draw if you get an opposing manager who is prepared to ref half the game.... and is fair. We played a team where their manager said they had a ref which turned out to be one of their coaches and it was the most corrupt match I have ever seen. Granted we have to fill out an online form after the game where you score the performance of the ref, opposition etc, but nothing comes of it. Grassroots football is an absolute mess, the way funding is proportioned is a joke. I know of one team that got £5k for fitting an outside tap at their ground! My team are F.A accredited and get absolutely minimal funding. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted June 12, 2023 Share Posted June 12, 2023 10 minutes ago, DrUnKeNbUm said: I coach an U9 (U10 next season) They play 7v7 at the moment and for me the biggest issue is the lack of refs. There are 3 or 4 clubs local to us that have 5 different teams for each age group, because these clubs make a decent amount of money from the 40+ kids they have on the books at each age level they seem to have an agreement with the F.A so every week they get appointed a ref. For context my lads played 24 games this season, we were appointed a ref only twice, no suprise they were when we played teams that are in the pocket of the F.A. The majority of the time we are scraping round to try and get someone to referee a game, if we dont get one then its luck of the draw if you get an opposing manager who is prepared to ref half the game.... and is fair. We played a team where their manager said they had a ref which turned out to be one of their coaches and it was the most corrupt match I have ever seen. Granted we have to fill out an online form after the game where you score the performance of the ref, opposition etc, but nothing comes of it. Grassroots football is an absolute mess, the way funding is proportioned is a joke. I know of one team that got £5k for fitting an outside tap at their ground! My team are F.A accredited and get absolutely minimal funding. I think the point about lack of refs backs into my suggestion about parents and coaches shouting at them. My son wants to try reffing next year and it’s the shouting at him about his decisions that will possibly end that for him. There’s absolutely no need for it. If it happens once then issue warning, second time and parent / coach gets asked to leave the pitch side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrUnKeNbUm Posted June 12, 2023 Share Posted June 12, 2023 18 minutes ago, Genie said: I think the point about lack of refs backs into my suggestion about parents and coaches shouting at them. My son wants to try reffing next year and it’s the shouting at him about his decisions that will possibly end that for him. There’s absolutely no need for it. If it happens once then issue warning, second time and parent / coach gets asked to leave the pitch side. Agreed, I have 1 parent who moans non stop, he has never been abusive to the refs but if his son gets fouled he demands for a booking, which never happens at this age group. Some of the stuff I have heard is shocking and I coach kids! There should be more in the way of sanctions to protect refs in grassroots football but ultimately I dont think the F.A care that much 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted June 12, 2023 Share Posted June 12, 2023 1 hour ago, DrUnKeNbUm said: There should be more in the way of sanctions to protect refs in grassroots football but ultimately I dont think the F.A care that much It starts at the top. When the professional game is a cesspit of abuse then that filters down to the grassroots. The FA need to sort out the top level as well as grassroots. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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