Long Post alert but worth reading if you are have kids playing or involved in junior football
We have not posted for a few months. We have been overwhelmed by the book sales, support and kind messages, thank you all, it really has been appreciated. ⚽️👍
Obviously, the book selling well is wonderful but the most important reason to write the book was to raise awareness of the huge issues and challenges in the junior game caused by the conduct of adults to hopefully bring about some change. We have to admit, on this front we have failed miserably.
It has not been through lack of trying. We tried for over a year to simply obtain some basic figures from the FA of how many fines and bans have been issued to parents and coaches. They have assured us they have ‘robust processes’ in place. But refuse to provide any evidence of how these processes are working under their own code of conducts. They have repeatedly misled, lied, ignored and frustrated us to the point of exhaustion/insanity – that we gave up (which is exactly what they want). But we are going to give it another go and with enough support we can get some answers and start holding the FA to account, they are failing our children, and it MUST be time for change. A good start would be finally releasing the figures on how the current procedures are working which they claim are ‘robust’, there is a huge disconnect the whole of the grassroots football community knows there are huge problems, but they think there is no problem.
Why are we not allowed to see these figures? – surely, they would back up these repeatedly claims that the existing code of conduct procedures are working and are indeed robust.
We will be requesting information again and will share on social media and provide updates. As we have seen the only way they will even reply – let alone answer any questions at all is if there is pressure from a wider audience. After being ignored a dozen times for details of the first Disciplinary Grassroots Review and whether it included children’s football, they only provided a statement when asked for a comment from the BBC because were on the radio (and even then, they lied!).
THERE WILL BE POSTS COMING OUT EACH DAY THIS WEEK. FOR ANYONE INVOLVED IN JUNIOR FOOTBALL THIS WILL BE OF INTEREST.
PLEASE FO FOLLOW AND SHARE
This season has already seemed worse than last season and season before, we have seen many reports of horrific behaviour from parents’ week after week. Full scale punch ups at U9 games, U12 games being abandoned for parents storming on to pitch, referees being assaulted and hundreds of similar examples. What part of any of this correlates with an organisation that has robust procedures in place and don’t see there is a problem. We have sold thousands of our book to parents, coaches and league/club officials, we have had hundreds of messages telling us how relatable our experiences were and how they have experienced the same from all over the UK. Not a single person has ever disagreed with a thing we have said, our kids deserve so much better.
More to follow !! ⚽️⚽️⚽️