The impact of New Labour's modernisation agenda on the English grass-roots football workforce

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, the grass-roots sporting workforce in England has been subjected to increasing policy intervention, primarily due to Government desire to use the private and voluntary sector to deliver a range of political objectives. English grass-roots football is arguably the most important site for this policy delivery given its huge popularity – providing the largest numbers of volunteers for any leisure pursuit in the UK [Sport England (2003)]. Despite this popularity, little is known about the grass-roots football workforce, made up of a large pool of volunteers, some governance staff and football development professionals – less still about the impact that such incipient policy interventions have had on their roles. This article draws on the data collected during separate PhD research undertaken by the authors to illustrate the impact that such policy interventions have had on the grass-roots workforce. Two recent strategies – The English Football Association's Charter Standard Scheme and The Equity Strategy – provide the focus. The data collected from interviews across a broad spectrum of grass-roots football personnel suggest a general uneasiness around the imposition of modernisation at this level.

Keywords:

• Grass-roots football
• volunteers
• New Labour
• modernisation
• The Football Association

Notes

The term ‘grass-roots football’ is used in this article to describe the spectrum of organised and affiliated football below both the professional game and the non-league or National League System (adult amateur/semi-professional in the football pyramid below professional level). This elite tier is governed nationally by The FA. Below this level, all football is governed locally by County Football Associations, who are responsible for governing what we might call ‘parks’ football (amateur leagues predominantly reliant upon local authority facilities) and youth and junior football (boys and girls under 18, outside of the professional club Academy system). The term ‘grass-roots’ therefore refers to the levels of football that are governed by regional County FA bodies.

Sport England has pledged £85.6million in public funding to football for 2009–2013, almost a fifth of the total handouts in lottery and exchequer cash. Football will take 17.8% of the total handouts received by all grass-roots sports initiative in the run-up to the 2012 Olympic Games (Scott, The Guardian, 2008)

The actual supply of this funding been questioned – particularly the funds supposedly promised by the Government. See Conn (2003) for more on this.

1st4sport Qualifications were established in 2001, as the awarding body for The FA Coaching qualifications at Levels 1, 2 and 3. Before this time, The FA centrally awarded their own qualifications, namely the JTM, Coaching Certificate and Coaching Licence.