FA NATIONAL GAME STRATEGY

FA National Game Strategy



Critically analyse and discuss the impact that the FA National Game Strategy may have on the development of youth football at grass roots level

Introduction

The Football Association's national game strategy is built on attaining four specific goals. These goals are as follows:

1. To increase and maintain participation

2. To increase game standards and deal with issues involving abusive conduct by the players and support staff

3. To enhance development of players

4. Effective running of the game (FA, 2012, pp. 11)

The Football Association is quick to acknowledge that for fulfilment of the aforementioned goals, it is very important to provide for certain areas of focus; these include improved facilities and a highly skilled workforce.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the direct impact the national game strategy by FA is creating on the development of youth football at the grass roots level. To analyze the problem, it is important to analyze the four goals of the strategy and how they are playing a role in developing grass root level game (Witzig, 2006).

Discussion

The national game strategy by the Football association is designed to actively participate in the development of the game while maintaining high quality environment which is positive and safe at the same time. Further, FA realizes it as their duty to provide adequate support during the process to all the participants. Furthermore, for each financial cycle, FA has set itself goals to attain. These goals are varied and are connected to advancing and prospering the game. For instance, in 2012 FA resolved to do the following:

Maintain approximately 150,000 football teams across the country

Initiated FA RESPECT campaign which worked on reducing bad conduct by participants in the game

Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks for all participants

FA Charter Standard Award is required for all registered youth teams. The idea is to indulge at least 75% of the team towards this award

FA Tesco Skills Programme was promoted which aimed to train 5-11 year olds. As many as 1 million participants are encouraged to join the programme

Youth teams are highly encouraged to get services of a minimum of at least one qualified FA coach

FA programmes encourage equality based participation in all areas of the game

Investment of more than £300 million for improvement of national game facilities

Aforementioned are only some of the goals FA has been working on for the year 2012. These goals are set and many programmes are designed to improve the national game at the grassroots level. The term 'improvement' highlights various areas of the game, which ought to be positively affected in the country's football structure. These areas include standards, participation, quality, resources etc (McShane, 2002).

1. to increase and maintain participation

Slightly less than 500,000 children between the age group of 5 to 15 years are participating in club or league football in the country. More than 3 million children also participate in 'kick about' football. Nonetheless there exist certain challenges. FA acknowledges there are a series of challenges that need to be ...