Kris Boyd - 'Football is now a Middle Class sport'

[Scary Bear]

4 minutes ago, SpoonTon said:

Which is obviously going to price out many, many kids. Not to mention the kids with the parents who either don't care enough, or aren't well enough to do anything about it. 

I can’t remember being in any clubs other than the cubs when I was wee. I still played football all the time. Maybe some kids just don’t want to play football.

Personally, I prefer my kids doing sports like swimming and gymnastics. Better for them in terms of physical development and a key factor, as the weather here isn’t the best, is that they’re indoor sports. We middle class types like to be warm when we watch sports. Maybe if they build a few more covered indoor pitches that would help.

[Scary Bear]

12 minutes ago, DanMc99 said:

my wee brother and his crew are all middle class, never struggled for anything, they wont even drink outdoors? what is the world coming to?  i should send him down the coal mines.

Do they play football?

[Gaz]

15 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

What is the evidence that kids don’t want to play football anymore? Do less children play organised football now than twenty years ago? How about non-organised football, I’m not sure if there’s any way to measure that. Have playing fields and parks disappeared to a large extent? When I think back to where we played football when I was a kid the pitches inInverness are still there, I do know that others have gone.

I'm not a fan of anecdotal evidence, but here's mine:

Twenty years ago, when I was at High School, each year group had two teams. The firsts and the seconds. I wasn't good enough to play for the firsts, but played a few games for the seconds.

I'm a teacher now, and a few years ago I was approached by a group of pupils at the school I used to teach in to take the combined 3rd / 4th year team. So right there, there's two year groups that would have had four teams between them 20 years ago down to one team between them.

There wasn't much to it, just organising buses and referees and suchlike, but it was an absolute chore trying to get 11 players who wanted to play. It wasn't just at my school, though - at the start of the season we went top of the league with three 3-0 wins. We hadn't actually played a game, but were awarded 3-0 wins by default as the other schools in the area cancelled at short notice.

I ended up sacking it as I organised a training session one Friday afternoon (we had a game the following Monday) and seven or eight of my players pulled out because the new FIFA had come out.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Just now, Scary Bear said:

Do they play football?

PLAY FOOTBALL DOWN COAL MINES

[Scary Bear]

2 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

PLAY FOOTBALL DOWN COAL MINES

Must have good eyesight for that.

[SpoonTon]

1 minute ago, Scary Bear said:

I can’t remember being in any clubs other than the cubs when I was wee. I still played football all the time. Maybe some kids just don’t want to play football.

Personally, I prefer my kids doing sports like swimming and gymnastics. Better for them in terms of physical development and a key factor, as the weather here isn’t the best, is that they’re indoor sports. We middle class types like to be warm when we watch sports. Maybe if they build a few more covered indoor pitches that would help.

Many kids don't want to play football (or to be seen to play football, anyway) out on the streets. If we want to get more kids involved in playing football, and improve that part of our game, saying "why don't they just play outside anyway," just ignores the reality that (for better or worse) this shift has taken place. We can either try to make the best of that, or we can dismiss them because generations before used to just play out in the streets until they well called in. 

[Bonksy+HisChristianParade]

Get kids playing Futsal imo.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

12 minutes ago, Scary Bear said:

Must have good eyesight for that.

Could get Bobby Madden to ref.

He's a blind c**t.

[Scary Bear]

1 minute ago, SpoonTon said:

Many kids don't want to play football (or to be seen to play football, anyway) out on the streets. If we want to get more kids involved in playing football, and improve that part of our game, saying "why don't they just play outside anyway," just ignores the reality that (for better or worse) this shift has taken place. We can either try to make the best of that, or we can dismiss them because generations before used to just play out in the streets until they well called in. 

There are umpteen other sports competing with football. It’s not like football is a special case. Most clubs have outgoings so they need money from parents. Maybe the Scottish government could sponsor sports, but then it’s a case of which ones? how much? why fund that instead of this? Etc.

If kids don’t want to play football outside with their pals and their parents can’t afford for them to join a club, then they are stuck. We’d possibly need more coaches, clubs and facilities to get more people playing organised football.

What’s so bad about playing football outside with their pals? I see grassy areas all over Scotland. Playing on the streets probably isn’t advisable but finding a park or a bit of land is usually easy enough.

[LondonHMFC]

18 minutes ago, Gaz said:

I ended up sacking it as I organised a training session one Friday afternoon (we had a game the following Monday) and seven or eight of my players pulled out because the new FIFA had come out.

So it's your fault, a real lack of dedication. 

In all seriousness, like yourself at school we had a A&B team in all years, and from memory the size of our year wasn't anything out of the ordinary. From memory, one thing I could never fathom we would play from August - October, and then the weather would turn and it effectively stopped us playing till the end of the school year.

Someone else mentioned about lads playing for Professional teams, which in turn meant they weren't allowed to play for the school. These boys were 12/13 years of age, it was fucking ridiculous. 

Things like kerby seem a distant memory, and little games like these were massive in improving your touch etc. 

As others have said, numerous other countries have the issues all highlighted, why does it seem to hit Scotland more than others? 

[D Angelo Barksdale]

The issues with our game run deep and are far greater than no ball game signs or middle class wankers. 

Anyway, here's how Belgium turned it around.

https://amp.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/jun/06/belgium-blueprint-gave-birth-golden-generation-world-cup-?__twitter_impression=true

 

[EFFC1938]

My dad was pretty strict with us when we were bairns but in his defence he would arm us with a drill, saw or whatever tools we needed to remove the no ball game signs from our scheme pretty much as soon as the council left after putting them up! Our neighbor's gave us their full support too! The streets are like ghost towns these days compared to even 25 years ago, bairns playing their games consoles or farting about on social media in the comfort of their own home or getting stoned, pissed or fat from eating too much shit! Changed days indeed! A mass clearout needed from the very top at the SFA before we see any improvements! Sad times for Scottish fitbaw and I don't see it getting better anytime soon. [emoji85]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Insaintee]

55 minutes ago, Shuggie_Murray7 said:

Too many kids give up all hope at an early age because so-called coaches only seem to want athletes and players who can boot lumps out of people rather than spending the time to actually coach players.

There are two schools of thought on youth development

1/ get as many kids playing as possible

2/cream off likely kids at an early age and focus on them.

 

Appologies for the Double Entendre

[SpoonTon]

11 minutes ago, Scary Bear said:

There are umpteen other sports competing with football. It’s not like football is a special case. Most clubs have outgoings so they need money from parents. Maybe the Scottish government could sponsor sports, but then it’s a case of which ones? how much? why fund that instead of this? Etc.

If kids don’t want to play football outside with their pals and their parents can’t afford for them to join a club, then they are stuck. We’d possibly need more coaches, clubs and facilities to get more people playing organised football.

What’s so bad about playing football outside with their pals? I see grassy areas all over Scotland. Playing on the streets probably isn’t advisable but finding a park or a bit of land is usually easy enough.

I didn't say there was anything bad about it. Although, as an aside, many councils are currently doing what mine is doing and not cutting larges areas of grass anymore 'to encourage the natural biodiversity to thrive' or whatever. 

The government puts quite a bit of money into things without really asking those questions, to be fair. Football is still the most popular sport in Scotland, the easiest to get a certain demographic to engage with, relatively cheap to organise compared to some other sports, and in many cases already has networks and expertise to tap into. If you were investigating which sports would have the greatest chance of encouraging engagement in deprived areas, football would come out on top. But I'd also say that they could be doing much more to encourage funding for groups promoting many different sports. I think councils are a large part of the problem here - football (i.e. sectarianism) is a problem to be dealt with rather than something to be encourage in the most deprived areas. In many cases they're a bit scared of it - that's my experience, at least. 

[A96]

25 minutes ago, Gaz said:

I'm not a fan of anecdotal evidence, but here's mine:

Twenty years ago, when I was at High School, each year group had two teams. The firsts and the seconds. I wasn't good enough to play for the firsts, but played a few games for the seconds.

I'm a teacher now, and a few years ago I was approached by a group of pupils at the school I used to teach in to take the combined 3rd / 4th year team. So right there, there's two year groups that would have had four teams between them 20 years ago down to one team between them.

There wasn't much to it, just organising buses and referees and suchlike, but it was an absolute chore trying to get 11 players who wanted to play. It wasn't just at my school, though - at the start of the season we went top of the league with three 3-0 wins. We hadn't actually played a game, but were awarded 3-0 wins by default as the other schools in the area cancelled at short notice.

I ended up sacking it as I organised a training session one Friday afternoon (we had a game the following Monday) and seven or eight of my players pulled out because the new FIFA had come out.

I was going to say that one of the main differences between my school days back in the late 70’s and early 80’s and the present day , is that there is no longer the same opportunity for kids to play for a school team in a properly, competitive, organised system.  My impression up here in Moray is that there are hardly any teachers willing to give up their time to take a team (so good on you, Gaz for trying to do something)

I was in secondary school just at the time when teachers were , understandably , beginning to get hacked off with the Tories who were , in effect , demanding that teachers were more accountable for what they did during their working day. The Tories dressed it up as protecting the public purse and making sure that the taxpayer was getting value for money from the teachers. But , of course, many teachers , who had previously given up their own time to take school football teams , quite rightly , took the stance that they would no longer help out with extra-curricular activities , if they were being demonised as a drain on the taxpayers for their normal workload.

Basically , a case the old adage of the Tories knowing the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

I can’t help feeling that the steady decline. In schools football over the last 30 years or so is at least a significant factor in the decline in the standard of professional football in Scotland to the point we’ve reached now.

[thisal]

It's quite simple our clubs are crap and coaching young footballers. 

[AyrTroopMajor]

Coaching has evolved from the days where the players were run into the ground, up the sand dunes etc. This has generally been seen as 'progress' but maybe the opposite is true. 

When I played Boys Club football (up to U-19's) we were taken to Ayr beach for pre-season training which essentially involved running until we were ill. It's something that you never see now but maybe there is some correlation between the disappearance of that method of coaching and the absolute shitebags that we seem to produce nowadays.

ETA: Apologies for what seems like a 'Yer Da' type post, just thinking aloud

Edited September 10, 2019 by AyrTroopMajor

[Gaz]

I have also said before that the Old Firm Effect is in play up here much more than other countries. In effect, players up here view moving to Rangers or Celtic as the pinnacle of their careers because they're Rangers or Celtic fans, rather than treat them like a stepping stone onto bigger and better clubs. This doesn't seem to happen in other smaller countries as much. de Bruyne didn't grow up wishing to play at RSC Anderlecht.

[Scary Bear]

3 minutes ago, AyrTroopMajor said:

Coaching has evolved from the days where the players were run into the ground, up the sand dunes etc. This has generally been seen as 'progress' but maybe the opposite is true. 

When I played Boys Club football (up to U-19's) we were taken to Ayr beach for pre-season training which essentially involved running until we were ill. It's something that you never see now but maybe there is some correlation between the disappearance of that method of coaching and the absolute shitebags that we seem to produce nowadays.

ETA: Apologies for what seems like a 'Yer Da' type post, just thinking aloud

You mentioned that you are 27. The likes of O’Donnell and Cooper are the same age as you. We’ll need to establish if they are working class and if they ran along a beach. If they did, we’re back to square one!

[kenny131]

Fact is the country has never gave to flying fecks too grassroots sport. I grew up in a town with 8k population and there was no kids football teams at all this was 30yrs ago and no computer games we were constantly playing football but no adults were interest in starting teams.

Fast forward to today still feck all in my home town. In comparison I live in a town half the size in Wales now and it has 3 adult amateur teams 1 semi pro team. All age groups kids football. This is mirrored by the local  rugby club. The locals give a shite about where they live and give back to community.........somewhere along the line going back decades people in Scotland don't give a flying f**k about where they live and are not arsed about helping out.

Edited September 10, 2019 by kenny131