To coin a phrase “What a summer of Sport”. Now that the excitement of the Olympics and Paralympics is subsiding the buzz word is “legacy”. What will this do for school sport and in particular football? School sport, in my opinion will certainly benefit from the renewed enthusiasm of all including the government, however, I think football has some way to go before it can be seen in a positive light by both the people and the government. The ethos of schools’ football will therefore be even more important over the next few years as we prove that our sport has a real involvement in the education of our school age children. I have already started talks with the National Council for School Sport to see how we can move the legacy forward. At the same time we continue to have talks with the Premier League and Football League to develop an understanding of schools’ football within the new Elite Player Pathway. Although many teachers feel that more involvement with the professional game will somehow dilute schools football and of course it will open the gates for more players to be ‘talent spotted’, I think that the benefit will be from the other end in that the closer links will enable schools’ football to welcome back the many discarded Academy/Centre of Excellence players. A pathway down as well as a pathway up.
Darren Alcock , who is running the Competition Department during Mike Spinks’ enforced absence is confident that when all competition entries have been received we will have surpassed the number of teams playing in our competitions. This is a marvellous achievement when you consider the effect of ‘rarely cover’, smaller budgets and new minibus regulations. For the 7th year running the Competition Department has increased their portfolio of competitions and is now just about at saturation point. There is, however, room for more girls’ football and as time goes on we will be looking at developing Futsal and the disability programme. Away from competitions we having been working on the new disciplinary regulations and the delivery of mixed football up to the age of under 14. The ESFA Council is reviewing elements of the FA Youth Review in readiness for their implementation from season 2013-2014.
As we enter the new season I am pleased to say that our two national Child Welfare Officers have reached their targets in getting and maintain safeguarding compliance for all our District and County teams. I must thank all District and County secretaries and their willing volunteers for their efforts in getting qualified to undertake the role of Child Welfare Officer.
This coming weekend ESFA jointly hosts with the FA the SAFIB AGM [Schools’ Association Football International Board] at the new St George’s Park in the midlands. As well as the home nations there will be delegates from a number of European countries. In the past few years, through involvement with SAFIB, a number of countries, including Germany, Switzerland and Slovakia, have introduced school football into their national programme of youth football.
