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sctv

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For what it’s worth,

Most of you know of my love for amateur football and recently junior football.

 

Couple of things

(Apologies in advance for the long post)

 

Amateur football needs to take a long hard look at itself, too many clubs are folding due to rising costs, lack of facilities, change in attitudes and commitment to name a few.

We need to look at how we change to embrace the future, unfortunately just now it’s easy to blame all of the above but we need to work on the positives and what we have and change and evolve as amateur football changes.

 

Young guys have loads more options these days, why should they play football, the positives are there we just don’t shout about them, firstly the physical side, no matter how unfit you are by playing your doing a bit, the social side is tremendous, out with the boys as a group,it gives you structure.

 

Currently our season runs from august to may, could or should we be looking at starting earlier finishing later or should a season be played in calendar year February to November , I’d go for the second.

Are Saturday and Sundays still ideal to play football, is as stated earlier now other options for young guys, for me Friday night football in addition to what we have could be an answer,

 

We need to ensure teams get help with structure, the safa quality mark is easily attainable but loads of teams wouldn’t fit into it, we should be helping teams put it in place, would help a bit with trying to keep players committed if off the field is right.

 

We’ve forgot football is meant to be about enjoyment as well as competitiveness .

Too many accusations of players being paid expenses, nudge nudge cough cough, rather hiding from it or turning a blind eye from it why not embrace it, why not look at an “elite” league with a possible pyramid system with the juniors or lowlands league, an amateur super league so to speak, and I know amateur and expenses doesn’t sit right.

 

In addition we should be looking at how we keep youth 16s up involved , dual registrations as they have with the juniors would be massive, we should also have dual registrations or at least loans available with the juniors, that would be really massive and a giant step forward and an interactive pathway with the Youth, the amateurs and the juniors working with each other.

 

The words Scottish AMATEUR football association also holds us back, my next words will have the old guard spinning but the word amateur stops us getting sponsorship or severely dents the chances, move with the times, we play RECREATIONAL football, even disguise it to the Scottish Afa.

 

We need to publicise ourselves more, there’s lots good about our game and we should be shouting about it,social media, YouTube videos our own tv channel.

 

My master plan for going forward for Sunday central etc, in the coming seasons we will be moving with the title “Football Central” which will allow us to grow not just on Sundays, it’ll incorporate our 35s it will also allow us to kick start our Friday night league,

I want regional divisions feeding into our own Sunday super league, a Lanarkshire division next season will be a start and build from there.

 

I’d like to start an over 45s division strictly aimed at relaxed although competitive football, possibly playing on Saturday mornings.

I’d like to try to secure our own park, at present dealing with Rutherglen Glencairn to try to do a joint deal on something.

 

I’d like to work with other leagues in conjunction with football central.

 

Football should be fun

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You make a lot of good points,l as always. One thing I'd say tho is that by adding a Friday night league I think will hinder Saturday clubs. Club x might lose 6 players to Friday nights football coz it suits better and it's not as if there is many more players out there waiting to swoop in. As Friday night grows Saturday will slowly suffer.

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I understand that, saturdays and Sundays are suffering already, for me if we offer something different it gives us a chance of keeping some more in the game.
There is always pluses and minuses , it’s just another option

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We need to learn how to play the political game better, we just get on with it just now, the mental health wellbeing is something we should be pushing, we are the social workers of the adult game.
Football gives more than just physical fitness to a lot of guys , it gives structure, friends, mental well-being to name a few

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unfortunately the game is suffering simply due to the lack of players, the generations of players who grew up with nothing but football to play is almost at an end, check out school trial matches now, less than half of what guys like us would have seen in our trials

one thing that could be streamlined for ease for teams is the secretarial side of the game, forms everywhere, fines for all sorts of minor misdemeanours, rising costs but teams arent helped if a signature is missing off of a sheet they get fined a tenner etc

i dont think changing football season times will do much, infact it might have the opposite effect, when its garbage weather sometimes football is all we have to actually be bothered, then if we actually get a summer the last thing we wanna do is play football, they times we'd rather enjoy the weather, bbq's, bevvy etc

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57 minutes ago, Gazzah said:

Summer football is a must for me. Season should be finished the now. Better parks and better weather(most of the time)

Having played,if it were me being offered summer football over the traditional season I'd stick with things as it is. Summer is time for holiday, relaxing, boozing on a Friday night at a BBQ etc etc. That's just me though.

Plus,with the many 3G/4G pitches across Scotland the opportunity to play midweek games under lights throughout the season to account for games called off due to adverse weather,I don't see a need for a change to summer football.

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I think the Friday night idea is a cracking proposal. Get your working week and game out of the way and then you can go and enjoy your full weekend.

You can have a few pints on a Friday night without worrying about your game on the Saturday.

You can go to Ibrox/Parkhead on a Saturday afternoon our out with the family on a day out. Guys get their heads nipped constantly about being out all day Saturday when they have kids etc! :D

You could go and play Golf on a Saturday too if that's what you're into.

So many Pros to the Friday Night Proposal and I am struggling to think of many Cons in all honesty. Probably securing a park would be the major issue if it went more nationwide.

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1 hour ago, Crazy Feet said:

I think the Friday night idea is a cracking proposal. Get your working week and game out of the way and then you can go and enjoy your full weekend.

You can have a few pints on a Friday night without worrying about your game on the Saturday.

You can go to Ibrox/Parkhead on a Saturday afternoon our out with the family on a day out. Guys get their heads nipped constantly about being out all day Saturday when they have kids etc! :D

You could go and play Golf on a Saturday too if that's what you're into.

So many Pros to the Friday Night Proposal and I am struggling to think of many Cons in all honesty. Probably securing a park would be the major issue if it went more nationwide.

Friday night football would be great but once the dark nights come in there's no way there would be enough parks to accommodate it plus there's also the club's who just refuse to play on astro as well. In theory it's a brilliant idea but the parks would just be too big off an issue 

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If a team are going away from home on a Saturday and the opposition play on astro there isn't much they can do about it is there ? I agree however there would be a shortage of parks to have a great number of games on a Friday night. For the minority who can get it sorted it's a smashing idea.

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2 minutes ago, Disco30 said:

If a team are going away from home on a Saturday and the opposition play on astro there isn't much they can do about it is there ? I agree however there would be a shortage of parks to have a great number of games on a Friday night. For the minority who can get it sorted it's a smashing idea.

I think there would be a lot of teams in Ayrshire up for playing their games on a Friday just now and I don't forsee the league having an issue 

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I think the Friday night idea is a cracking proposal. Get your working week and game out of the way and then you can go and enjoy your full weekend.
You can have a few pints on a Friday night without worrying about your game on the Saturday.
You can go to Ibrox/Parkhead on a Saturday afternoon our out with the family on a day out. Guys get their heads nipped constantly about being out all day Saturday when they have kids etc! [emoji3]
You could go and play Golf on a Saturday too if that's what you're into.
So many Pros to the Friday Night Proposal and I am struggling to think of many Cons in all honesty. Probably securing a park would be the major issue if it went more nationwide.



Canny argue with any of that.
A lot of astro pitches lying unused on Friday nights around Glasgow, not many kids teams train & never seen an amateur team train a Friday. Think it'd be quite easy to get a park. Think you'd still have a lot of the same problems that's affecting amateur level in general. One aspect people are overlooking that's affecting amateur football nowadays is working life, the working week is a lot more 24/7 shift work now, compared to 9-5 Monday to friday when amateur football was booming.
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Don't think the aafa have the same forward thinking guys in charge as the central league hampers progress in my opinion.

 

There have been 4/5 occasions In The last season that I can remember teams moving their game to the Friday or Saturday night. I went and watched a beith v new farm game this season and also a glenburn game last season. Plus seen others listed. Ayrshire seem to already allow it. I think having a thur/ Friday night OPTION for "Saturday" teams to consider on a weekly basis is a great idea but I don't think it's fair to impose it on clubs and also think setting up a separate Friday night league would be the end to MANY MANY Saturday clubs/ associations.

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i honestly dont see that summer football will benefit more than the current set up, a lot of teams struggle for numbers during the season now, imagine trying to get a squad together for a sunday mid july when the weather is scorching and half your team have weans and wives nipping their ears to go out for the day

least in the winter when its fucking horsing it down with rain many guys can tell the family to stay indoors while they go play football lol

friday night games might be good for saturday teams that struggle for bodies, but sunday amateur teams would never fill it especially if a lot of the sunday guys play sat football as well,

the biggest impact right now for clubs is costs and bodies, and they both go hand in hand, more bodies mean cheaper costs for players, but guys not playing will get the hump at paying still and maybe leave the team, meaning costs go up

right now for a sunday team to play 4 games on 3g in a month and train once a week on an outdoor 3g floodlit 7's pitch that would cost them 436 quid a month, thats the base amount, no kit washing, no putting money aside for new kits, matchballs etc, league and cup fees, simply to play football its over 400 quid a month, just over 27 quid a month per head for a 16 man squad, thats if all 16 show up, pay the same amount and all appear for training, its hard going for teams now, i know a team that has played 2 home cup games in the space of 3 weeks, thats a minimum of 100 quid for the game due to the rule that home team pays for the whole park and half the ref, aye its to help the away team with travel costs, but its a bit shite when the away team are only fifteen minutes away by car, and their match fee is only 20 quid

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