Do you remember when footie was a simple game? Four jumpers and a ball and children of all ages could enjoy a kickabout? Those days have gone, as the national game becomes a COMMODITY TO CONSUME supported by the Football Association and million pound companies pretending to educate children, like the Cabot Learning Federation.
The City Academy in East Bristol, recently RIPPED UP their astroturf to lay a state of the art 4G playing surface. The youth football teams that trained there were told to train elsewhere for a couple of months and return to a lovely playing surface to improve their skills.
Then the trouble started. The cowboys employed to do the work, ripped it all up, and then announced that the drainage was substandard and that would be ANOTHER £250K please. Remember that old chestnut? I do. My Nan was conned by a gang driving around, promising new tarmac paths and disappearing over the hill after they ripped them up. They came back, after their poor victims had been housebound for a couple of weeks, and DEMANDED MORE MONEY.
The only difference between these two sets of fucking spivs, is my Nan’s lot got nicked. The one’s that CONNED the Academy and the children of East Bristol, will probably get an OBE and BONUSES on their shares.
After much wrangling between the suits, a price was agreed and the pitch was laid. Hooray! The FA said on their website while celebrating the new pitch, that “by providing more high-quality facilities, coupled with coaching at the appropriate age group, the Premier League and The FA Facilities Fund aims to improve the experience for regular players as well as attracting new players to the game. Many of the new state-of-the-art facilities will serve to strengthen the connection between professional football clubs and their local communities, PARTICULARLY IN THE MOST DEPRIVED AREAS OF THE COUNTRY, through the professional clubs’ community trusts’ outreach work.”
What a load of bollox. Instead parents, players and coaches are now being told that they now have to FORK OUT for new boots to be able to use the state of the art pitch. This was never explained prior and these boots range from £40 upwards. The youth football teams star many children from single parent families, families on benefits and, even, refugees without access to benefits. They are told that they CANNOT WEAR astro trainers, or moulded boots. They must be Nikes or Adidas. Worse still, coaches are expected to turn away poor children, and some have.
Stories abound of crying kids being turned away. One parent told The BRISTOLIAN, “I have 3 boys, so that’s over £150, plus the kit, and the weekly subs. We have to go to foodbanks to make ends meet. That is the end of it for us.”
One coach close to The BRISTOLIAN said “I’m not spending my coaching time turning kids away. I do this to include, not exclude. My team is losing players, because they are poor.”
Is this the SOCIAL CLEANSING of our football? Will future World Cup squads just be made up of middle class kids, who can afford various boots? Why can’t players wear astro turf trainers on astro turf and then wear them to school as many do at present? SPORT SHOULD BE FOR ALL, not just the well to do. They have taken our swimming pools, libraries and now they’re after our football.
Enough now surely?