LL THIS WEEK
Why grassroots football matters more than ever
Hundreds of amateur football clubs have been forced into their second significant standstill of the year. JAYKE BROPHY looks at what that means for fans and players
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rassroots football has been paused across the country. Like every other halted activity this month, the action has been taken in an attempt to lower the number of Coronavirus cases before Christmas, but this could leave a number of clubs in financial danger. Even the EFL has said this week that they have a number of teams struggling to pay players their wages. At the level of football which has been stopped however, it is even worse. These clubs rely on matchday income to pay the bills. Without shirt sponsors or having their stadiums named after luxury airlines, non-league clubs are on their last legs. Outside of that, young people have also seen their pastimes taken away for four weeks. Whilst these youth clubs are in no financial danger, and most will undoubtedly be able to kick off from where they stopped come the first week of December, it means we now live in a
country where outdoor sport is considered ‘non-essential’. It means we now live in a country where outdoor sport is considered ‘non-essential’. We now have to ask whether cancelling all grassroots sport for a month was the correct thing to do and does the science really back this controversial decision? Grassroots football will always hold a special place in my heart. Any given weekend I am among the thousands of people either watching or participating in the beautiful game. For many, it is a way of life. In my role as a referee I meet people from all around England every week who have spent their lives working tirelessly for their local side for nothing but the love of the game. Since the return of football in August, these people have turned their devotion up a notch by not only volunteering their free time to their club, but doing so in a COVID-secure way. I don’t say this lightly, but the safest I feel anywhere these days is at a football ground. Upon entry to any footballing venue everyone attending is
Grassroots Football UK used its Facebook page to make a public plea to Digital, Cultural, Media and Sport Minister, Oliver Dowden, left
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Jayke Brophy refereeing a match temperature tested, Track and Trace is in place, and social distancing is maintained in the bar at full-time. It is borderline insulting to the thousands of people who have invested and worked tirelessly to ensure their club is safe that they are suddenly deemed both non-essential and dangerous venues. The real unfortunate issue within this second lockdown however is the suspension of youth football. I played kids Sunday League every weekend in the winter from the age of eight up until I was 16 and hung up my boots to pick up a referee’s whistle. I know just how important football is to young people, not just as a hobby but also as a physical and mental exercise. To suggest that sport is ‘non-essential’ seems to set a dangerous precedent to me. In July, Public Health England suggested that people were 40% more likely to die after contracting coronavirus if they had a BMI of 35-40, compared to a much healthier level of Body Mass. This clearly shows the importance of advocating a healthy sporting lifestyle among young people. If we need to close the pubs and restaurants for a month to ensure that people can still exercise readily, then that seems like a fair trade off. Perhaps the hardest pill to swallow for young people will be the fact that elite youth sport has been given permission to continue. Meaning that there will be people in the same classrooms at school who have, or have not, been allowed to keep playing the sport they love, based purely on their ability. On the Facebook page ‘Grassroots
© Jayke Brophy
‘To suggest that sport is ‘nonessential’ seems to set a dangerous precedent ’
Football UK’ there have been a number of posts showing the upset and confusion among their community. Including an ‘open letter’ to Oliver Dowden, the minister in charge of sport, urging him to see the importance of exercise during the pandemic. The post has so far received over one thousand likes, proving that many people feel agree with the sentiment. This suspension of grassroots sports came as a bit of shock to everyone, even when the Prime Minister was making his statement on October 31. That Saturday, I was talking with my assistants for the day and the Chairman of the home side and we were all in agreement in our expectation that low-level sport, and football in particular given its outdoors nature, would be spared from the cull a lockdown provides. Perhaps we were in denial, but when we left the pitch at full-time that afternoon, none of us truly believed it would be the last time we would be on a football pitch for over a month. For now though we all eagerly await the return of our beautiful game and hope that those in power see sense about its importance.
