Local Football Study Essay

In Peterborough the first way in which people access football is through their school, either through the school lesson, school clubs or school club links. The aim of the school curriculum is to give people a chance to play certain sports, mainly at a low level of performance, if the student wished to improve performance this is the point they would make use of the school’s club links. Another role schools take in providing provision in football is providing competitive matches between other schools in the area and occasionally a bit further out. This role is taken on by the PSSP, which is the Peterborough school sports partnership. The PSSP arranges fixtures within the city, the PSSP has many coaches in which to help a performer’s development and to help people just starting the sport. Peterborough has a pretty comprehensive local football system ranging from Under 9’s to senior level. The main junior leagues in the area are the Peterborough Junior Alliance League and the Peterborough and District Youth League. Peterborough Junior Alliance League Leagues Cups Under 9’s – 3 Divisions Under 9 League Cup Under 10’s – 3 Divisions Under 10 League Cup Under 11’s – 3 Divisions Under 11 League Cup Under 12’s – 3 Divisions Under 12 League Cup Under 13’s – 3 Divisions Under 13 PFA Cup Under 14’s – 3 Divisions Under 14 League Cup Peterborough and District Youth League Leagues Cups Under 15’s 3 Divisions League Cup, Hunts cup Under 16’s 3 Divisions League Cup, Hunts cup Under 18’s 3 Divisions League Cup, Hunts cup I cannot be critical of these leagues because they provide good, structured competitive football for everyone and varied abilities. Every age group has 3 divisions because of this I would say you can play competitive football no matter what skill level you play at. Although there is one way I could criticise these league because the league finishes late in February which is a huge gap until the new start in September, if this was my league I would increase the length of the season to allow the players to compete more often without the massive gap. High quality football locally is limited. This is only the third year the Peterborough centre of excellence has been running after it was shut down 6 years ago due to lack of funding at the club. This gap caused many good standard players to look elsewhere for further development in football. In Peterborough are only small amounts of disability football. There is one disabled football club for senior and junior age groups in Peterborough the clubs is called ‘Netherton United’. The closest disabled league is ran in Cambridge. The junior league in the area is the â€Å"Cambridge Ability Counts League†, This league enables competitive opportunities for disability teams. The league allows all disabled players to take part in structured games against other teams across the county. The league consists of festivals throughout the season with scores being made into a league table. Histon Hornets, Wisbech St Marys, Castle, Cambs Deaf Utd, St Ives Rangers and Netherton Utd all take part in the fixtures. There is also a disabled league for senior players, which is the Eastern Region Ability Counts League. There is a lot of provision for womens football in Peterborough. There are quite a few teams all ranging in ability levels, with the top team being Peterborough ladies and the lower ends being teams such as Netherton United. There is quite a few leagues that the teams in the area play in, both for juniors and seniors. The problem is though that these leagues also incorporate teams from further afield meaning more travel is required, however this can also be advantageous as the quality of opponent will be greater. There are 4 junior leagues in the area in which city team’s play in. * Cambridgeshire girl’s league * Weetabix league for women * Fenland Girls Chocà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ League * The Primary and Secondary school league The Football foundation is the main source of funding for Local Football teams, here are some of their initiatives: * Capitol Project Scheme * Goal Post Safety Scheme * Junior Kit Scheme An example of funding locally would be Hampton FC. Hampton Football Club has a variety of sponsors. The club ranges from under 8’s to under 18’s, each age group at the club have different sponsors. Overall the club is sponsored by Serpentine Green, who have sponsored the club and brought the club kit since 2OO7. Facilities for the lower level of performance are relatively strong in Peterborough. There is lots of local Sunday league football clubs that have good facilities in the area, a brilliant example of this would be Netherton United’s facilities at the grange. There are also facilities that are council owned in the area, for example bushfield astro turf and Powerleague, which has numerous 5 a side leagues. Peterborough doesn’t have any great facilities. There is not a lot of high level coaching in the local area; however there is alot of coaching at community level. So for a player that has just had just taken up the sport there are many coaches but the problems come when a player is looking to improve as a performer. High quality coaching in Peterborough is very limited with Peterborough and Cambridge united having the only development centres in the city. Peterborough’s local FA are committed to promoting and developing referees and refereeing the County, Cambridgeshire FA and Huntingdon FA offer courses for new referees throughout the year. Bibliography:http://www.vivacity-peterborough.com/sport-and-leisure/sports-development/what-we-do/funding-for-sport/mars-in-the-community/ http://www.thefa.com/GetIntoFootball/FindAClub? http://www.footballleagueadmin.com/pdfl/ http://www.pjal.co.uk/ http://www.thefa.com/ http://www.huntsfa.com/splash.aspx http://www.ladiessoccer.co.uk/products.asp http://www.hampton-footballclub.co.uk/ http://www.peterboroughssp.co.uk/ http://www.cambridgeshirefa.com/Development/DisabilityFootball/CambridgeshireAbilityCountsLeague/ http://www.sheffieldfa.com/Development/Funding/JKS/ http://www.powerleague.co.uk/