South Ribble Development Centre

Email received this weekend⤵️ I would like to take a moment for everyone to think and applaud all coaches, managers and volunteers who give up their time and efforts to grassroots football. My husband has managed a team for the past 12 months, it’s isn’t about just taking a 1 hour training session and taking the kids along to a football game. A couple days before the training session he is PLANNING what he is doing, after the training session he is then working out and planning a team who is available. Then there is match days which consist of paperwork, organisation, making sure the children are ready, and organisation with other managers. This is another Job alongside his 50 hour a week full time job! Now ……. This is where the disappointment comes in …….. Parents ………. He has had a handful of parents criticise, be rude, abrupt and moan constantly about game play and their child not getting enough time, when all he is doing is making sure everyone gets a turn and trying to PLEASE everyone and let’s face it you can’t! Final straw this week when a parent wants to come to our house to discuss my husbands choices! With abrupt messages!! This isn’t even on a game day or training day!! My husband is mentally drained and exhausted and ready to give up coaching completely! After hours of training, coaching, courses and first aid courses he is ready to jack all this in! And this isn’t because of the children he coaches ……… it’s the parents behaviour! My message to parents with children in grassroots football - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE think about what you feel or what the problem is before you message, ring, speak to the coaches and volunteers …….. is it really a big issue? Is it something that can wait until a training session? Can it be spoken about at a convenient time? Or does it even need to be said at all? My husband gives up so much time to organising, setting up, packing away after games and no parents stay to help or even offer. SO TO ALL COACHES AND VOLUNTEERS OF GRASSROOTS FOOTBALL WE APPRECIATE EVERYTHING YOU ARE DOING FOR THE CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS THANK YOU – at South Shields, England

📷 FA Announcement - Serious misconduct to result in points deduction in grassroots in an effort to tackle bad behaviour Point deductions will apply to Incidents of serious misconduct, such as assault or attempted assault, physical contact or attempted physical contact against a match official, or acts of discrimination Deductions will range from three to 12 points depending on the number of breaches within 12 months of the team’s first offence and severity of the case(s). teamgrassroots.co.uk/the-fa-…

What was the most common grassroots phrase you heard this season? If it's not on the list please add in the comments ⤵️

THE FA TO EXPLORE THE FUTURE OF YOUTH FOOTBALL IN ENGLAND The current provision of youth football in England from U7s to U18s to be assessed. A project will be carried out to explore the future of youth football in England. Read MORE⤵️ teamgrassroots.co.uk/the-fa-…

“The decision to cancel a Game” It’s easy to criticise the decision to cancel a game, but before you do just take a second to think what has gone into making that decision first. 1) Is it safe for everyone and is the forecast safe? 2) Is it currently playable and what is the forecast? 3) Is there a weather warning in place now or whilst the games are on? 4) Will the pitch drain water or thaw frost in time? 5) What’s the temperature forecast now, overnight and during the game? 6) What time is KO and how far are the opposition travelling from? 7) If it’s a central venue, thousands of people will be affected, is an earlier decision better? Sometimes the decision to cancel is made at the last minute if a belief that the game can be playable will be made, other times an early decision will be made. All decisions are made with the available information at the time and the available upto date weather forecasts. Often the decision is right, sometimes the decision can “in hindsight” be wrong due to many factors such as drainage, temperature, wind etc but always the decision is made in good faith. Many times we’ve personally made this decision and know it’s not an exact science at times, so a little shoutout of support from teamgrassroots to those with the decision on their shoulders and who will quite often be up late and up early doing last minute checks and obsessively checking weather forecasts. We appreciate it 🙌🏻🙌🏽🙌🏿