The government threaten to withdraw £30/40m of grass roots funding.
No surprise,football is and always has been,the poor relation as far government(all parties),councils and even the FA themselves are concerned.
Football is the sport of the masses for one main reason,all you need is a ball and a bit of space.
Football thrives despite next to no help from government,national and local,despite school football pitches disappearing at an alarming rate and despite kids having more to do with themselves than ever before.
Government funding of sport makes my blood boil,
Ben Ainslie is worth (allegedly) £13 million,from sailing a f@@king boat ! When he decided it was "his dream" to win the Americas cup but needed £100 MILLION people were falling over themselves to give him cash.
Ainslie announced plans to build a team headquarters in the Solent area.
Portsmouth Council approved plans for the £12M main operations building, which Ainslie confirmed would be built subject to £8M of requested UK Government-backed development funding.
So WE gave him £8m to build a shed.
6 people will be on this boat,SIX oh and the race is in Bermuda.
6 MILLION people will play football in this country this week, yet they want to cut the funding.
Track cycling gets £26 million in funding,can anyone tell me where our local velodrome is ?
50 metre swimming pool ? (£22m)
Skeleton Bobsleigh gets £6.5M,we had some snow flurries in Wantage yesterday,White horse hill it is.
Last but not least,30 years ago,Grove Rangers applied for planning permission to build new changing rooms on Grove rec,a modest building,just changing rooms and showers,the council turned it down,
3 years later Grove RFC submitted plans for a far more substantial clubhouse including 4 changing rooms,a large bar area and car park(demolishing a playground in the process) passed by the council,no problem.
Grove Rangers have 2 teams which use Grove rec,Grove Challengers(kids) have 11,Grove Ladies have 3,2 weeks ago the clubs received an Email from the council saying the pitches were off limits at the weekend due to the bad condition of the pitches.
Grove RFC played and trained on Saturday and Sunday on the self same pitches.