On a Monday morning, reading all of the mainstream newspapers’ weekend round-ups would probably take you right up until the start of Sky’s newly non-sexist Monday Night Football coverage.
Yet for something that regularly brings together millions of people, that has solid institutions and that has so much importance in British life, it’s hard to argue that the community has embraced football effectively.
The old cliché that football is ‘more than a game’ is simply true. From an early age, it is football that gives many children, especially working class children, their first sense of belonging. From age seven, I was playing in my local team; it was the first time I had ever felt part of something and as a child of no faith who didn’t want to go to Beavers, Cubs and Scouts it would be football that had the importance to me that those institutions have to other people’s lives. That feeling of belonging to a community grows with age. Many continue playing, and the local club provides an important break from the many stresses related to life in low-income areas. Others stop playing, but that escapism still comes from watching their club.
The feeling of being part of an institution and a community is part of the allure of the game. People sing in tandem and they experience victory and defeat together.
They also pay ticket fees together. Though many clubs are facing financial difficulties, institutions from Glasgow to Portsmouth collect membership dues and ticket fees every week. More than this, the super clubs like Manchester United and Arsenal have communities of members spanning the globe. All of those people, from all genders, religions and classes, are organised together into membership structures. And all of that money is organised into thriving organisations. Is that potential power utilised by the community?
Football clubs do a lot of work in the community. Chelsea do sterling work for adult health awareness as well as social inclusion work, Sunderland recently appointed David Miliband to further their work in the community and the Manchester United Foundation has a long-standing relationship with UNICEF that reflects their global community responsibility. This responsibility trickles down the Football League ladder. ‘Canaries for the Community’ puts volunteers from Norwich City right into the heart of the locality where they help with things like tidying up a local theatre, Rochdale help out with the coaching of local junior teams and Barnet use the game to coach youngsters in more than football.
This is all good, and it shows clubs are living up to their responsibility. But how often are the clubs harnessed as part of the community? It may be a case of personal ignorance, but I cannot remember or find many examples of this. Yet the potential power this could bring to communities is huge. There would also be the important element of reciprocity where the community, in coalition with the clubs, could help the clubs’ interests too. Ownership wranglings are becoming a regular feature of British football. My local club, Cardiff City, went through years of this. Fans expressed disgust every week in the stands but they had no power and, being so distant from the wider community, no partners. These problems all contributed to the situation that Cardiff City found itself in recently where it was facing a winding up order. A community with the club as a part of it could have nipped the problem in the bud years ago.
The ‘more than a game’ cliché is one based on a truism. But another old cliché, ‘football and politics shouldn’t mix,’ could not be further from the truth. As long as football remains important to the community and the people in it, the community should look to involve the clubs in the everyday politics that villages, towns and cities face all over the nation.
but of course its more than a game its a business,and those charity donations will all be offset against Tax.Football USES people ,their needs ,their emotions as you describe, for gain.Yes there are some benefits but the greater will be as always for shareholders. Don’t get me wrong our family loves it too. A community with a club as part of it would be wonderful.
I take your points, but I think the last line of that comment is the point I was making. We need to get through the (justified) cynicism as articulated in the first 4 lines of your comment and unlock the importance that football clubs can play in the community.
The simple fact the people who now pay as much as £75 for a ticket sit in the rain to see a bunch over paid film star kicking a bag of win around. This morning I drove passed my old school, the football pitch is being dug up and housing put onto it, because we failed to get enough school kids to play football. I did everything possible to get the kids to join up free kit free boots, and in the end four people signed up. Saturday Morning I’m driving around trying to find two or three players to make a team. Sorry this hype is not worth even reading. Notice how he talks about the big clubs who were paid £64 million from the lottery fund to do the sport in the community, we run a local club, for years we had £500, then brown decided that money needed to go to the big games the Olympic games, so he cut it to £30. Rubbish like this makes me annoyed
Robert Rather than seeing the idea that we could bring clubs into the community as “rubbish”, I think you should try seeing it as something that could solve some of the problems that you mention. If the clubs were part of community coalitions, the likes of which exist up and down the country, with other institutions and groups then they would be accountable as part of that community. Clubs have responsibilities to live up to. Part of the reason they want to live up to those responsibilities is that they need to retain a good image as a club. If the club was a partner of the community, then the community would be able to hold the club to account to play it’s part properly. If it didn’t; well, then that image that the club needs to uphold would be tainted. It is all about appealing to the self-interests of the football clubs. And that is only one example. Many people sit and watch and complain about the highly paid footballers, but until football clubs of all sizes are engaged into the community properly, how will the community be able to hold the club to account? Also, the clubs you are referring to are the giant super clubs. I accept that bringing clubs of those sizes into the community may take longer and be more difficult. But it is definitely realistic to consider that clubs from lower divisions could be brought into the community. If you look at Wrexham AFC’s recent travails then you can see that there is scope for this to happen. The wider community helped Wrexham by signing petitions etc, but it would be great if the people and other institutions in that community became permanent partners with the club and if their relationships continued after this issue with ownership of the club has blown over. (You can read more about it here: http://www.redpassion.co.uk/) I understand the cynicism, but if nothing is attempted to try and bring clubs into the community, then of course nothing will happen.
Robert Rather than seeing the idea that we could bring clubs into the community as “rubbish”, I think you should try seeing it as something that could solve some of the problems that you mention. If the clubs were part of community coalitions, the likes of which exist up and down the country, with other institutions and groups then they would be accountable as part of that community. Clubs have responsibilities to live up to. Part of the reason they want to live up to those responsibilities is that they need to retain a good image as a club. If the club was a partner of the community, then the community would be able to hold the club to account to play it’s part properly. If it didn’t; well, then that image that the club needs to uphold would be tainted. It is all about appealing to the self-interests of the football clubs. And that is only one example. Many people sit and watch and complain about the highly paid footballers, but until football clubs of all sizes are engaged into the community properly, how will the community be able to hold the club to account? Also, the clubs you are referring to are the giant super clubs. I accept that bringing clubs of those sizes into the community may take longer and be more difficult. But it is definitely realistic to consider that clubs from lower divisions could be brought into the community. If you look at Wrexham AFC’s recent travails then you can see that there is scope for this to happen. The wider community helped Wrexham by signing petitions etc, but it would be great if the people and other institutions in that community became permanent partners with the club and if their relationships continued after this issue with ownership of the club has blown over. (You can read more about it here: http://www.redpassion.co.uk/) I understand the cynicism, but if nothing is attempted to try and bring clubs into the community, then of course nothing will happen.
Seeing as I’m the local community sport coach in my area, I know the problems. Giving money to large clubs who will run what is a sport academy for the best players it can find, what we needed is the local clubs who maybe running under 5′ under 7’s under 9’s under 10’s right up to adults, who also run disability football, yet have to pay out thousand to get a playing field which might be cut and marked once a month. The problem with you lot you know if you give money to the big club the media get hold of the information while if you gave it to the local groups sod all would be seen Last year I had to dip into my own pocket to buy footballs for the local disability sports team, the team had to be ended the following month due to failure to get enough money to pay for the insurance we need. The real world does not get past some people. It’s the non league clubs that are doing the work not some bloody club who eyes roll when they see money, football ended when the league starts, I mean the English football league the professional league. Why the hell do they need £64 million mate
Great topic. Would love to hear more about what non-league and lower division clubs are doing so that we can share their ideas and the impact they’ve had on local community to inform stakeholders. Feel free to email. Our website: http://www.responsiball.org
@Robert – Sorry, but I think you’re missing the point here. At no point does the article suggest we should give money to big clubs. This is about working with football clubs and bringing them into the wider coalition that we call “the community”. I think the existing power of football clubs int he community as a binding force should be harnessed by communities and community politics to strengthen the community as a whole. One hypothetical situation: if the local professional football club is an active member of the community as suggested in the article it will also be an accountable member of that community. That means, when small junior clubs need their pitches sorted out, the local pro club can work with the community to put the necessary pressure on the powers-that-be to get it sorted. The added influence that the big club has, and the power that brings to the community as a whole, would give you as your junior club a lot more power. This isn’t about giving big clubs money.
So the £63 million labour gave to larger clubs was what a bribe, football is not Manchester United it’s the local grass root teams