The Youth Football Guide – No. 8: Facilities

Welcome to the eighth installment of a small series of serialisations of my book “A Guide to Surviving Youth Football” If you like what you see and want to read more please do go and purchase a copy of the book by going to amazon.

Facilities

In youth football facilities can leave a lot to be desired, with no laws or regulations on what teams have to provide. You can play games anywhere from a farmers field to a local park. There won’t be many youth teams that own their own pitches and facilities. Most youth teams will play on a pitch belonging to a Parish council, local council, school or a local men’s football team. This means you never know what facilities there are going to be at the pitch you are going to. If they have toilets which are open during the game you think you are playing in the lap of luxury.

Just because the pitch may be a school pitch it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will have changing or toilet facilities as the school may not open these facilities for the football. The golden rule is that whenever you are travelling to an away game make sure that your players come to the game ready in their kit underneath their jackets and tracksuits, and to make sure your players go to the toilet before they leave. If you are coaching boys they can at least, if desperate, go up against a hedge but if you are coaching a girls team it can make away games very difficult without toilets or changing facilities. Not only do you have to think of your players but also their parents as well.

As a coach you want as many parents and supporters to turn out for your games as possible but if there are no facilities for them it makes it harder for you to encourage them to come. Then you have rainy days when there is no shelter for them and when the car park is so far from the pitch that they can’t see the pitch from their car.

Now I’m not saying all pitches and grounds are this bad. At some grounds, if you are lucky, they will have changing facilities, toilets and even somewhere to purchase food and a hot drink. These are going to become the away games you love. The one small problem with going away to a team with good facilities is when you have to invite them back to your ground you may feel embarrassed by your lack of facilities compared to them.

With the increased need for housing in many villages, towns and cities it means there are less pitches for youth football teams. This means that many sporting clubs are now having to pitch share. Football teams are playing on cricket pitches and rugby teams are playing on football pitches. All of this means even if you are the home team trying to arrange a pitch can be an absolute nightmare. If you use a school pitch you have to be sure to book the pitch you need early as they will normally let many different sporting clubs use their pitches.

If you are using a pitch belonging to a local men’s football team trying to arrange dates and times for your games can be difficult. Of course the men’s team gets first pick and even if they are playing in the afternoon they won’t want anyone else going on before them and damaging the pitch, so when they play at home it rules one day out completely. For facilities, playing at a men’s pitch is great as they normally have a shelter and changing rooms but you are completely in their hands and at any minutes notice they can stop you from playing on the pitch if they feel the pitch isn’t holding up well which leaves you rushing around trying to find another pitch.

www.theyouthfootballguide.com

(Image courtesy of fchmksfkcb)

Related Posts:

• Unfairly Paying the Penalty
• The Youth Football Guide – No. 7: Away Games
• The Youth Football Guide – No. 6: Home Games
• Artificial Enhancement: The Solution for Grass-Roots Football?
• Weathering the footy storms…