ONE ROOT FOOTBALL

25-06-2007

Pete Millington’s son could one day be major soccer star…but although Dad is proud, there’s something worrying about the whole thing too.

On Friday evening my family and I went to an awards night at Warley Borough Football Club

The evening was held at the M&B social club on Portland Road, which happens to be the home ground of Warley Borough and, I believe, half a dozen other local amateur soccer teams

Warley Borough have been in existence since 1994, they have numerous teams which range from kids aged 7 upwards right up to big strapping youths of 16 that play in the Stourbridge and District League

My son Joe has been playing for Warley Borough for 12 months, throughout the autumn, winter and spring the team train one evening a week and also play a competitive game every Sunday morning

It’s a fantastic set-up and mirrors what is going on for hundreds of thousands of kids in tens of thousands of teams and thousands of similar leagues up and down the country

For me and my wife, the past 12 months have been an eye opener in terms of how everything fits together in the wonderful world of soccer

Whilst we encourage all three of our children in ‘sport’, we’re far from being competitive ‘glory-hunting’ people, the evidence being that we support Aston Villa (sorry, forgot the re-branding for a moment there, oh yes “Proud History…Bright Something Or Other… oh yes…Future”)

So it came as a nice surprise when our Joe was picked out by community coaches from the Albion on one of their summer camps a couple of years ago

Deep down I guess all parents love being told that their children are exceptional at something, whether it be sport, arts, music, dancing, writing, science, swimming… whatever. It presses buttons.

But the secret is to keep your feet on the ground and stay in touch with reality.

Suddenly, at the tender age of 7, Joe was being invited to the new Albion academy to participate in advanced training - wow! Our son is going to be a big star, he’s going to play for the Albion, would have preferred the Villa personally, but you can’t have everything

However, whilst the pride of seeing your little kid showing off his skills to the pros in a big plush training centre doesn’t necessarily wear off… the reality of his long term prospects does quickly start to kick in

Especially when one starts to talk with other parents, the ones that have been round the block

West Brom seem a very friendly and supportive bunch of people so I’m not targeting criticism specifically in their direction, the process is more or less the same right across the board from the Conference upwards

Basically how the system works is that every club in the country has scouts that go around local parks at weekends or training grounds in the week, looking for children who show a bit of extra flair or even just a bit of extra determination

You quickly find out that your child is not the special one (well to you they are obviously) and suddenly every next parent you talk to about soccer has a son or nephew or neighbour or kid in the same class at school who is “at the Albion”, “playing for the Villa”, “snapped up by the Blues academy”, “on the books at the Wolves”

You even meet one or two with close connections at Sheffield United, Everton, Wigan… even Man U

You also start to hear the horror stories

“They signed him up, he was prevented from playing for his school team, he had to live, eat and breathe Whoever United… and then at the age of 16 they all got called into a big room and he was told “sorry” the dream’s over”

“They took him on a tour of Sweden at the age of 12 and he couldn’t even phone home, they said it was part of toughening them up”

“There are two doors in the room, one for boys who they want to keep on… the other is the exit for those no longer good enough”

“They started with 50 0r 60 and only one ever made it to play for the reserves”

“My husband was driving two of them all over the country for 5 years and it nearly caused us to get divorced. In the end the club dropped both of them”

These are all real quotations from parents I’ve talked to about the academy systems of our local clubs - dreams built up and then shattered, young lives processed along the production line called youth policy, young hearts broken, parents left to pick up the pieces

So did we pull our son straight out of the Albion and send him to cubs instead, which will arguably give him a broader range of skills for his life ahead?

Don’t be silly, like most parents we are as fickle as the next person, given a glimmer of hope, a whisper of encouragement, we’ll be there, week in, week out. On the touch line… believing the dream

But returning to the issue of the small clubs, the Warley Boroughs and the army of volunteers - the amateur Martin O’Neills, the rookie referees, the ladies who sell the raffle tickets at half time, the small bald headed men who construct the goals and run the line come rain or shine for no payment and just the odd bit of glory every couple of years…

Well, fairly frequently a young player will be spotted by a scout from a big local team, usually when he’s playing for his small local team on a cold and frosty Sunday morning

And occasionally that young player makes it through the ranks of an academy and is signed up for a big club. Even a deal for a 15 or 16 year old will see thousands of pounds exchange hands between the big clubs

But how much of that fee comes back down to the little amateur club who was nurtured and encouraged that youngster from the age of 7? The people always still there for them when the academies have seen enough?

How much of that fee rewards the people who taught that kid how to head a ball or nutmeg the keeper in the first place?

How to pass instead of running into a brick wall of defenders? How to be part of a team and how to take a throw-in, a corner or even the winning shot from the half way line? Or just how to hold your head up and shake hands with the team that have just slaughtered you 12-0?

How much of that fee buys a new set of goals or a new kit for next season? Or a dozen new training balls - the ones that seem to fly off into thin air of their own accord when no one’s looking?

How much of those tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands , or sometimes millions of pounds of fees paid for new young Beckhams, Rooneys and Michael Owens come back down to the clubs which create this talent in the first place?

It may or may not come as a surprise to learn…

NOTHING…. Not a penny…. ZILCHO!!!

Can this be right? I’m not suggesting 7 year olds having contracts with amateur soccer clubs… but surely the grass roots clubs deserve something back from this multi-million pound industry?

(Also see “Football ‘Child Abuse’ Claim”)