What are Community Sports Clubs - Assignment Example

Running header: Club and community Student’s name: Instructor’s name: Subject code: Date of submission: Introduction: what are community Sports Clubs? These are relatively small clubs started within a society with an aim of providing the residents with an avenue for involvement. According to culture .gov.Uk, the clubs collaborate with various sporting bodies such as Sport England who offer financial and even professional help to the clubs thus making them better placed in nurturing young talent. In addition, collaborating with professional clubs such as Manchester United helps the clubs since some of the participants eventually get employed as professional players in the professional clubs. However, in order for a community club to get full benefits of collaborating with other clubs, it must be recognised and accredited by various governing bodies. This paper analyses the roles played by community sports clubs with reference to Fletcher Moss Rangers FC as well as the benefits that accrue from recognition and accreditation of such clubs. Fletcher Moss Rangers FC was started in 1986 local parents and other sponsors with an aim of nurturing talents in young prayers and encouraging participation in sport by the young at the local level. Since the organisation of its first two teams by Nigel Hanson and Howard Issacs, the clubs popularity has been on the increase with every sporting season. However, the greatest improvement was after the club attained the FA charter standard in 2002 since the club was able to acquire professional and financial support from its links with the professional bodies. As a result, the club currently boasts of running 25 teams including four ladies teams with players of diverse ages and is the best community club in Manchester. Why community clubs emerge? Community sports clubs’ aim is to improve participation in sport by the young through provision of sport to the local community. They nurture sport talents among the young by providing cheap and affordable sporting. Therefore, they compliment top UK sporting bodies’ aim of increasing participation in sport by people from deprived areas. Furthermore, the clubs are vital avenues for overcoming participation barriers in addition to engaging people of diverse ages and potential trouble makers. Such barriers may be financial, social, cultural, ethnic, educational, age, among others. Another notable barrier to participation in sport is lack of adequate and up to standard sporting facilities including those of the disabled (Hylton and Totten, 2008). In addition, the cost of participating in professional clubs may be prohibiting to potential participants. As such, community sports clubs are vital in complimenting government’s effort to improve participation through provision of such facilities and nurturing young beginners’ talents. Community clubs also help in overcoming antisocial behaviour in society this is because they help the young use their energies constructively through sport. It is through community clubs, that deprived areas have witnessed increasing interest in sporting activities such as football, boxing and martial arts at the local level. Sport England via sports facts 2010/11 confirms the rapid increase in boxing interest over the years. There has been a significant increase in the number of boxers over a relatively short time from 115000 people in early 2009 to 140000 in early 2012 .this depicts the success of government’s effort to increase participation through the use of community sporting clubs. Running of community clubs The more a community club becomes popular, the greater the number of members it gets hence calling for increased funding to cater for more space and sporting facilities. Being non profit making organisations, the major sources of financing for community clubs are grants from sport organisations, local councils, membership fees and sponsored charity sporting events. Organisations such as the FA also replace old and unsafe goal posts for the clubs and schools on condition that the club is affiliated with the local FA. Being non profit making organisations, community sports club are usually under funded and hence Volunteerism is essential in their operation. Therefore, most club officials are usually volunteers who include local parents and well wishers who offer financial and professional support to the clubs. Volunteers gain from various incentives as well as invaluable experience that can help them get other jobs. The volunteers can also be offered permanent jobs by the clubs once they become stable. Importance of recognition and accreditation Club mark (nd) states that it is important for community clubs to get accredited and gain such recognition as the FA charter standard as the club will be assured of annual funding. The recognised clubs also benefit from subsidised or free equipment and kits and hence are able to develop further and faster through the accreditation Fletcher Moss Rangers FC accreditation to charter standard junior status has resulted in the increase in the number of members and the number of its teams. The club has also been funded to hire more pitches and purchase new equipments and kits. The accreditation process required the club to develop new policies. The club also invested in its officials by sending them for FA courses to equip them with higher qualifications as the process demands that the possess basic operating standards with the most essential ones being standards on safeguarding and protection of children, basic first aid skills qualifications as well as equity in coaching. Furthermore, the club raised the level of its current coaches’ football qualifications from level 1 to level two and three as part of the process. Furthermore, the club created ladies’ teams in line with FA’s rules on equality. In addition, the club had to develop clearly stated strategic plan with clear stated strategies on how to meet the strategic plan. As a result, Fletcher Moss Rangers FC attained the highest award of Charter Standard Community Club. It is as a result of the recognition that the club has produced some of the most celebrated players in the English premier league. The FA has a very strict code of criteria that clubs have to follow to be accredited. The club must prove its ability to nurture young players’ talents and develop young coaches into future professional coaches. The club must also run regular football tournaments to promote participation by the young. . As such, Fletcher Moss Rangers FC regularly runs a soccer school event on a Saturday by Saturday basis. As a result of the accreditation to Charter standard status, the average number of people participating on the club’s weekly soccer school event doubled from 25-30 to sixty. Fletcher Moss FC has therefore been successful in increasing local participation in football in line with FA’s endeavour. Its coaches’ standards have also increased to level three while the club regularly trains volunteers through its links with educational institutions where students volunteer to work with the club. Notably, the club’s volunteers are usually CRB checked and hence are always able to run the sporting events. This enables them fulfil the FA’s Charter standard aim of inculcating a duty of care by young volunteering students over the young club participants. Links: Since its accreditation, Fletcher Moss Rangers FC has established links with various professional football clubs including Manchester united, Manchester city among others. Therefore, the clubs sign up some of the club’s talented players. According to Suffolk FA (nd), the club has also established links with local educational institutions with an aim of increasing participation by young people in the club in line with FA Charter Standard’s requirement for the club to establish links with other clubs and enhance communal cohesion. Therefore, the club receives volunteers from the institutions learning who act as referees and help in inspiring future volunteers and act as role models to the young players. Links to the professional clubs are instrumental through inspirational trips by professional prayers and coaches who inspire the club’s young players apart from the extra coaching received. This enhances the club’s potential. Benefits of Club Accreditation: By achieving the FA charter standard, the Fletcher Moss FC automatically became club mark accredited. This has enabled the club become better organised as it’s placed under the supervision of the local FA and restructured for continuous development in the long run. In addition, the club benefits from funding by other major sport governing bodies. The club also benefits from increased participation because the standard makes it safer, reliable and more professional in operation. Parents therefore are more on the clubs ability to nurture their young children’s talents. Sport England created club mark in 2002 to guide parents making informed decisions when choosing clubs for their children. Therefore through accreditation, the club vows to ensure children safety , implementation of equity in coaching which calls for removal of barriers to participation in sport as well as equality in treatment of all participants. Accreditation helps the club diverse and allows for participation from the whole community hence increasing chances being supported by different local organisations (Fletcher Moss Rangers FC (nd). The club’s popularity also rises and its offers more professional coaching to the players. The players become more determined since more professional prayers emerge from the club. Accreditation also improves volunteerism by the locals as the charter encourages recruitment of local volunteers in return for incentives. The volunteers access training to attain sport qualifications for free or at subsidised costs. In fact, Fletcher Moss Rangers has seen a rapid increase in the number of volunteers after its accreditation. Therefore, the club has a good structure with 25 teams largely relying on volunteers. In addition, if an accredited club gets into financial difficulties, the FA steps in the long run to assist it financially. The standard also ensures that the clubs maintain their pitches to FA standard of quality and hence other people would be interested in hiring the pitches. In addition, accredited clubs are prioritised in accessing governmental and municipal controlled facilities at subsidised rates. This increases a community club’s chances of success. There are no direct costs involved in attaining club mark accreditation; however, the club has to pay for their coaches and officials training to attain various sport qualifications on minimum operating standards (Leona ,2010). The costs are however deemed necessary as the qualifications increase parents’ confidence that the club has been licensed to coach football and that the club strictly adheres to all FA rules. The accreditation is renewable on a three year basis to ensure that the club strictly adheres to the FA charter standard rules and regulation. Funding: Fletcher Moss FC main source of funding are the annual grants from Sport England and FA which are aimed at ensuring its commitment to improving participation in sports by the young at the local level (Fletcher Moss Rangers FC (nd). The national lottery also funded the club in a bid to help it develop soon after being accredited to FA charter standard. Other sources of funding for the community club include participation in sporting events as well as club membership fees. In addition, the young prayers’ parents make annual contributions to the club. All the funds are used in running the various activities of the club. Running of the club: Fletcher Moss FC is mainly run by its coaches and parents who meet annually to decide on the club’s agenda for the coming year. The meeting also reviews commitment to the charter standard and comes up with ways to overcome any challenges that might face the club. Fletcher Moss Rangers FC Short term Development Goals: Fletcher Moss Rangers FC has a number of short term development goals which include; -the club intends to acquire permanent facilities since the current facilities are leased on a short term basis and the council does not intend to make it long-term. - The club will organise more regular events to enhance knowledge among players by involving professional players to motivate its players. This will also be an avenue to raise more club funds. Fletcher Moss Rangers FC Long term Development Goals: The club has stated the following to be its long-term development goals. - Through funding from sporting organisations the club will invest in coaching, participants, facilities as well as the club itself. - its hoped that the club will get more funding from sport England so as to increase delivery of extra-curricular activities to promote Sport England’s lifelong participation scheme.. -enhancing participation through involvement of local schools in its extracurricular activities. -improving female participation. -establishment of links with disabled player organisation in a bid to increase their participation in sport. - Introduction of coach education and mentoring schemes. -Consider equity in coaching and make participants, coaches and parents aware of the club policies on equity. - Establishment of more links with similar organisations to enhance education and participation. Conclusion: As has been discussed above, community clubs are of paramount importance in delivering and nurturing sporting talents to the young at the community level. The Fletcher Moss Rangers FC has been very successful in eliminating and overcoming the various barriers to participation in sport at the local level in line with sport England policies. In this regard, the club has many participants from the local community and exceptional players are emerging from deprived societies. The soccer school events run on a weekly basis by the club has greatly boosted the level of participation by the locals in foot ball sports. As such, the number of teams owned by the club has greatly increased with participants being of diverse ages and genders. In addition, the club has come up with ways to boost female participation in sports. As such, the club has been highly successful in growing the football culture among people of diverse ages which helps the club nurtures and produce some of the best professional players found in major professional teams. The parents’ participation in the club has also been instrumental in its success. The parents voluntarily run the club by offering coaching services as well as other official duties. The parents also support their young players’ thorough encouragement and feedback. With the club having attained the FA Charter Standard and with clearly set goals for the future, the club will surely emerge among the best junior community football clubs in future producing highly professional footballers. References: Culture. Gov.UK accessed on 27/6/2012 via: http://www.culture.gov.uk/news/media_releases/8762.aspx Sport England .org. Accessed on 27/6/2012 Via: http://www.sportengland.org/support__advice/cascs.aspx Fletcher Moss Rangers FC (nd), accessed on 27/6/2012 via: http://www.fletchermossrangers.com/ Hylton, K. and Totten, M. (2008). Developing Sport for all :addressing inequality in sport: in K. Hylton and P. Bramham (eds) Sports Development: Policy, Process and Practice, 2nd edn. Routledge, London. Suffolk FA (nd). Accessed on 27/6/2012 via: http://www.suffolkfa.com/Governance/Suffolk+FA+Goalpost+Replacement +Scheme/ Leona T, Babatunde B, Clint G, David G, Sue Minten. (2010). Sport in the UK. Learning Matters Ltd, Exeter. Fletcher Moss Rangers FC (nd). Accessed on 27/6/2012 via: http://www.fletchermossrangers.com/index.php?option=com_content&vie w=article&id=28&Itemid=293 Sport England’s Sport Facts (2010/2011). Accessed on27/6/2012 via: http://www.sportengland.org/research/sport_facts/sport_facts_2010- 11.aspx Clubmark (nd) accessed on 27/6/2012 via http://www.clubmark.org.uk/benefits Read More