You should listen to Bryan's contribution here. It's controversial vis-a-vis England. The rest of it is interesting, too.Thanks for posting this, 'cuss.
Quote from: john e on June 25, 2014, 04:52:39 PMwhen I was at school some 40 years ago, school football was where it was at, if you were good enough to play for the school team that was quite possibly the only competitive football you got until you left school and went on to play for the local pub/club there has to be more kids playing competitive football today then ever before, every Saturday and sunday there are thousands lining up for there local sides from ages 6 upwardsI'm not saying the competitiveness is a good thing, but there is more opportunity today than there was years agoalthough playing football every single night on the street or local park seems to have gone, and that might play a partwhat I'm saying is that whilst selling off school sports fields is an absolute tragedy, it cant be blamed for kids not playing football or having the opportunity to do soThose competitive games for 6-12 year olds are a big part of the problem. The key to coaching at that level is about getting lots of time with a ball and getting loads of touches. a decent sized grass pitch with 7-11 a-side means a lot of those kids are 'playing football' without actually spending much time with a ball. You get the 1-2 kids who are a bit special and are involved in everything and the rest of the team turns into a delivery mechanism for them.
when I was at school some 40 years ago, school football was where it was at, if you were good enough to play for the school team that was quite possibly the only competitive football you got until you left school and went on to play for the local pub/club there has to be more kids playing competitive football today then ever before, every Saturday and sunday there are thousands lining up for there local sides from ages 6 upwardsI'm not saying the competitiveness is a good thing, but there is more opportunity today than there was years agoalthough playing football every single night on the street or local park seems to have gone, and that might play a partwhat I'm saying is that whilst selling off school sports fields is an absolute tragedy, it cant be blamed for kids not playing football or having the opportunity to do so
My eldest will be attending a private school in the UK in September - not our first choice but missed the deadline for applyinmg for state schools. However, I 'nipped' back to the Uk last week for his induction day and the size of the playing field that they have was astonsihing. When I was at my comp we didn't even have one of our own. There really is a diminshing return on children's eductaion when it comes to sport. If you have the money the classrooms or smaller (i.e children to teacher ratio), they tend to be better equipped, and the playing fields available are also either shared, or non-existant.Maybe not for the discussion forum but it's a valid point that our success at international level is of course going to be questioned when less children have exposure to playing the game with proper facilities.
thing is sport in schools or sport for kids in general should not be first and foremost about building the future national team, it should be about enjoying sports of all kinds, keeping active and fit, leaning the importance of being in a team unit, whether the children are ever going to be good enough to go on proffesionally is irelevent really, private schools always put massive importance on sport because they know its beneficial to the overall education of a child, apart from being good exercise and good funwhat I'm saying is sport in schools should be right up there with maths, English science etc, because it important to keep kids playing sports for many other reasons than just hope one or two of them make it into the England team
Having been there a couple of times, I'm still really not sure how a multi million pound facility down a country lane just outside Burton is helping the national game in any way.
Wayne Rooney or more to the point, his employers do not have to pay a 10% wage levy. He is qualified English. Maths;20 Premier League Teams25 Squad Players per teamAverage wage £1 millon per year 40% English qualified leaving 60% paying a 10% levy.15 players (non English) x £1 million x 20 teams @ 10% = £30 million.Thats £1.5M from each club on average - a small price to pay bearing in mind they get £60M before they start. £30M based on a £30K wage = 1000 new coaches.Or we can continue down the same road..........