The event was put together by League Representatives who form the County FA Youth Committee with Jeff Gibbard as the Chairman. The Committee felt that the following areas were important to club delegates when running a club.
• Image of the county FA
Presented by Laurence Jones, Chief Executive of the Association. Laurence explained that the image of the FA is changing. People are beginning to recognise that the FA provides a service to the football community and does not just issue fines and suspensions. The reality is that the real work is done out on the pitches, developing football facilities and creating opportunities for all people to play the beautiful game.
• Youth Leagues for Leicestershire and Rutland clubs
Presented by Martin Rooney, County FA Youth Committee member and Secretary of the only mini-soccer teams in Leicestershire & Rutland. There are thousands of players who play in the Leicester & District Mutual Football League across the county and without the dedicated team of officials and committee members this would not be possible. There is a great deal of unseen work that goes on away from the pitch that has a massive impact on football in this county. Martin went on to talk about the other Youth Leagues and their respective age groups.
• FA Charter Standard Club Programme
Jeff Gibbard, Chairman of the CFA Youth Committee and Compere on the night, spoke about the how this programme has influenced clubs. The Charter Standard Club Programme is designed to ensure that all young players are receiving a certain standard of football opportunities, included in this is their welfare and whether there is an appointed welfare officer within each club, also assessed are the facilities each club offers players and the quality of coaching the club provides; the programme gives players the knowledge that everything is in place for them to reach their full potential in football.
Mark Cox, Welfare Officer at Cosby United Juniors & Youth FC, presented a short presentation to the delegates on what drove the club to and how it achieved the status. This was followed by what benefits have the club received since obtaining the status and what does the club want to achieve next.
• Funding and Investment
Kelly Ellis, County Development Manager of the Association presented this short presentation on Funding. There are numerous grants available from various different organisations that can in theory help every club in the county improve their facilities and equipment to grow the game of football in Leicestershire, however the majority of clubs are unaware of these grants and therefore do not capitalise on them. Whether your club is in need of regulation goal posts, a new kit or is planning a new ground there is a grant that can make this happen, available by simply filling in a form.
• RESPECT Programme
Marion Hayton (RESPECT Lead Officer) presented a short presentation on how the County FA and the RESPECT Leagues have worked together to ensure the 4 key areas are working – 1) Designated Spectators Area 2) RESPECT Codes of Conduct 3) Captain’s Responsibility 4) Referees managing the game better. It is worth reminding everyone is football that we have a job to do and without each others support we cannot achieve the ultimate goal.
David Jamieson (Chairman of the Leicestershire Midweek Floodlit Youth League) spoke about how the League is working with the teams to raise the awareness. David’s presentation was followed by RESPECT for Referees, presentation by two active referees, Kevin Friend (Professional Game Match Official) and Matthew Law (Leicestershire Level 8 Referee).
There is no doubt that disrespect and dissent is a problem within football and the professional game does not help this, however between 2008 and 2009 C2 (dissent) cautions in Leicestershire have decreased by 13.9% and a lot of this can be attributed to the impact of the RESPECT programme. At every match in Leicestershire the presence of RESPECT is noticeable, whether it’s through the respect handshake, the captain’s armband or respect barriers around the pitch and these do a lot to improve the behaviour of players, coaches and spectators towards officials. However there are still lots of work to be done, behaviour is by no means perfect and there is plenty of room for improvement. A key message has to be that it will take everybody’s participation to make a serious difference and change the game for the better.
• Club Administration
Matt Edkins, Operations Manager, presented a Discipline Overview to club administration, together with the introduction of Member Services and Affiliation for the coming season. This is a very important part in the Running a Club. All County FA correspondence to Clubs are sent to Club Secretaries. Clubs have been reminded to inform the County FA of any changes to their committee members especially, Secretary and Club Welfare Officer.
• Player Welfare
Tim Siggs, County FA Welfare Officer, spoke about the history of Child Welfare and various issues related to Welfare of Players. The role of the welfare officer is a very important one and has now been recognised as compulsory is order for an FA affiliation. The welfare officer is responsible for dealing with issues of bad practice and possibly abuse within the club as well as ensuring that coaches and staff have been CRB checked before working with children. A welfare officer in each club can prevent anything like the Soham murders ever happening in football.
‘The evening was really informative and interesting; there is a lot to be learnt about everything that is happening in football from the RESPECT programme to how to obtain funding and the seminar explained a lot of this.’
The event would not have been successful without the help of different guest speakers. These were:
• Mark Cox (Cosby Untied Juniors and Youth FC) - addressed the audience about the FA Charter Standard Programme
• Stuart Broughton (Quorn Juniors FC) and Richard Keeling (Rawlins Community College) – Football Foundation Small Grant Scheme – Funding
• Allexton & New Parks U10’s Hawks FC – Leicester City FC RESPECT Ticket Scheme Winners
• Kevin Friend (PGMO) and Matthew Law (Level 8) – Referees
Mr Gerry Cooper, President of Leicestershire & Rutland CFA presented awards to the following clubs for their various successes in obtaining recognition for their hard work:-
• FA Charter Standard Club Renewals – After 3 years every FA CS Club has to apply to renew their status. We applaud the following Clubs for their success in achieving this: Oadby Owls Juniors FC (FA CS Club), Kegworth Imps FC (FA CS Club) and Mowbray Rangers FC (FA CS Community Club)
• FA Charter Standard Club - Welcome to the FA CS Club Programme and for achieving the status – Leicester Fosse Colleens FC (FA CS Club) and Ibstock Utd FC (FA CS Community Club)
• Quorn Juniors FC – For their approval of the FF Grow the Game Scheme worth £5000
• Allexton & New Parks U10’s Hawks FC were presented 10 Leicester City Match day tickets for their good behaviour and support to the FA RESPECT Programme
A big thank you goes to the following CFA Youth Committee Members for their input and support:-
• Jeff Gibbard (Chairman), Martin Rooney, John Ward, Norman White, Keith Johnson, Bruce Johnson, Phil Moseley, Nigel Garner, Mike Hale, Paul Midwood, David Jamieson and Peter Grange
To view the presentation of the Seminar – Where Players Matter, please click onto the link provided. Should you have any questions or you are interested in learning more about the County FA and its projects please send your request to info@LeicestershireFA.com
For further information on the County FA please visit – www.LeicestershireFA.com