Why You Cannot Trust Football or Soccer to be Fair for Children - A Personal Perspective
Formalities are. I am a parent of a madly loving football daughter, or soccer to those who are not aware that this is the original football. Most children move up with their teams as they grow older, and the size of teams and the size of pitches evolves. This is supposed to ensure that the game encourages skills but also a competitive environment to build on the training sessions that also take place weekly during the season. Teams are put into divisions or sections as they now call them, and between September and December each team should play the other in the league on one occasion to fulfil the league fixture list. Additionally, there were three cup games in a so-called group stage, against teams in the higher or lower section, and I guess that this was also used to see the relative strength of one division against another. She is currently at an age where playing alongside the boys is fine, and that continues until she turns 12 or 13. In general the league is well run, results and general information about the team and teams are not supposed to be publicly available in order to follow safeguarding children, referees administer each game (not sure sometimes about independence and consistency to the basic rules), and there is a formal structure to the sending in of results to a division secretary. So far all is good.
Now to the sticking points. The rules and regulations, although generally good and precise are not transparent on several things. Football at this stage is supposed to be developmental, but the teams know that moving up the divisions is an aim, and some teams are more focussed on that than anything. We encountered a very loud talking coach who was giving continual instructions to his players. So now we are at the stage where the first half of the season is over. The team has done well. We are not the best and we are not the worst, at least for results, but now we await the results of the re-streaming. Here the league does not set out the process fully, so it is not transparent. They make a statement of points per game. However, they do not given any information regarding games not played, except that if they cannot be fulfilled in 2013, they are not to be played in early 2014. So I sent an email to the Division Secretary, who also happens to be the Chairman of the League, and asked how this criterion is applied. Does it include all the structured games? Does the ranking involve all teams across all sections or are only two or three sections looked at together to apply and so a top 10 or 11 are worked out and similarly a bottom 10 or 11. There is nothing in the rules and regulations about this. I even offered to help out.
You can possibly guess the reply, sent from an I- piece of kit. Speak to your club secretary, which is I did not want to do, and will not do. What it says, is that criticism of the lack of clarity of rules, is not to be answered by way of thanks. It plainly stinks of arrogance, and as I also checked out who this person is, I also found out that the organisation he works for, is not one that I would like to be associated with. There is probably nothing wrong with this person, excepting his lack of care, which sort of indicates the level of importance that he attributes to himself. I would assume that if this was another country, that the league would be taken to a court of law and would be blown out with suing on a grand scale. It is a pity that either the help or the feedback of a positive nature regarding a duty to be transparent is not taken seriously in this area of football. Although the children and even many of the parents may not understand or want to understand, there is still a need that faith remains and that the items that bring this game down are few and far between. I am not so sure. I am not sure if this leads to a lack of meritocracy, and does this word even exist. My problem is that my daughter loves football, and lots of other sports, and I know that there is favouritism all over the sporting world in terms of so called achievement but it this going to hinder her and the other children in the future who are not regarding as the favoured ones.
Now to the sticking points. The rules and regulations, although generally good and precise are not transparent on several things. Football at this stage is supposed to be developmental, but the teams know that moving up the divisions is an aim, and some teams are more focussed on that than anything. We encountered a very loud talking coach who was giving continual instructions to his players. So now we are at the stage where the first half of the season is over. The team has done well. We are not the best and we are not the worst, at least for results, but now we await the results of the re-streaming. Here the league does not set out the process fully, so it is not transparent. They make a statement of points per game. However, they do not given any information regarding games not played, except that if they cannot be fulfilled in 2013, they are not to be played in early 2014. So I sent an email to the Division Secretary, who also happens to be the Chairman of the League, and asked how this criterion is applied. Does it include all the structured games? Does the ranking involve all teams across all sections or are only two or three sections looked at together to apply and so a top 10 or 11 are worked out and similarly a bottom 10 or 11. There is nothing in the rules and regulations about this. I even offered to help out.
You can possibly guess the reply, sent from an I- piece of kit. Speak to your club secretary, which is I did not want to do, and will not do. What it says, is that criticism of the lack of clarity of rules, is not to be answered by way of thanks. It plainly stinks of arrogance, and as I also checked out who this person is, I also found out that the organisation he works for, is not one that I would like to be associated with. There is probably nothing wrong with this person, excepting his lack of care, which sort of indicates the level of importance that he attributes to himself. I would assume that if this was another country, that the league would be taken to a court of law and would be blown out with suing on a grand scale. It is a pity that either the help or the feedback of a positive nature regarding a duty to be transparent is not taken seriously in this area of football. Although the children and even many of the parents may not understand or want to understand, there is still a need that faith remains and that the items that bring this game down are few and far between. I am not so sure. I am not sure if this leads to a lack of meritocracy, and does this word even exist. My problem is that my daughter loves football, and lots of other sports, and I know that there is favouritism all over the sporting world in terms of so called achievement but it this going to hinder her and the other children in the future who are not regarding as the favoured ones.
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