Grassroots Football Doesn't Belong to Anyone | Football coaching for boys and girls aged 4-16 based in Maidstone, Kent

Grassroots football should be simple. A ball, a pitch and a group of kids who want to play. But increasingly, that simple idea is being made more difficult by something that has very little to do with football: fear of competition.

Across the country, new clubs are being kept out of local leagues, not because they are necessarily doing anything wrong, but because established clubs are worried about losing players. Instead of competing by creating the best possible environment for children and families, it can sometimes feel easier to stop new clubs getting started in the first place.

Why New Clubs Exist

Most new grassroots clubs aren’t created to steal players from existing teams. More often, they exist because there are children who haven’t found a place elsewhere.

We’ve heard of clubs holding trials for children as young as under-7s and under-8s, with as many as twenty-seven children turned away at a single session. These are children who want to play football, but are being told at a very young age that they aren’t considered good enough.

At grassroots level, football risks becoming a filtering system rather than a sport that gives as many children as possible the opportunity to take part.

That is exactly the gap Big Bear was created to fill. We wanted to provide a place where children of different abilities could play, develop and enjoy football, regardless of whether they were the strongest player on the pitch.

Strangely, that inclusive approach has sometimes been used as a criticism. We’ve been accused of growing “too big, too quickly” and even of operating like an academy. The reality is much simpler. We’re a grassroots football club trying to give children the opportunity to play. Some of our players have gone on to trial at other clubs and later returned because they weren’t considered strong enough for those environments.

That, in itself, demonstrates why clubs like ours are needed. We’re not here to poach players. We’re here to provide opportunities for the children who might otherwise miss out.

The Numbers Tell Their Own Story

Look at what happens to team numbers as players get older and there is clearly an issue. At the youngest age groups, there can be close to a dozen divisions, each containing six or seven teams. By the time players reach the 16 to 18 age bracket, that same pool can have fallen to just two divisions, one with seven teams and the other with eight.

Of course, some drop-off is inevitable as children get older. Interests change, school and work commitments increase and some players simply move on from the game. But a reduction on that scale should raise questions.

Somewhere along the way, too many players are being lost from the system. Whether that is down to selection, a lack of suitable teams, pressure to perform, limited opportunities or simply falling out of love with the game, it is something grassroots football should be taking seriously. The aim should not just be to bring children into football at six or seven years old. It should be to create an environment that gives them every reason to still be playing ten years later.

Grassroots football is losing a huge number of the teams and players it starts with. We should be asking why, and what can be done to keep more young people involved for longer.

Gatekeeping Dressed Up as Due Diligence

When a new club applies to join a league, the process should be relatively straightforward; Can the club operate safely? Is it properly organised? Does it have the necessary safeguarding, facilities, coaches and administration in place? If those standards are met, clubs should be given the opportunity to participate. If genuine problems emerge afterwards, there are already processes available to deal with them.

Instead, new clubs can find themselves going through interviews, extensive questioning and decision-making processes involving people who may also represent established clubs. That creates an obvious concern.

More clubs inevitably means more choice for players and parents, and potentially more competition for existing clubs. Allegations or rumours can also begin to carry weight before they have been properly tested. Applications can be delayed, questioned or discouraged because a growing club is viewed with suspicion rather than as another organisation trying to give children the opportunity to play. That isn’t what due diligence should look like.

We Need More Clubs, Not Fewer

If grassroots football genuinely wants to give every child the chance to play, the answer cannot be to restrict the number of clubs available to them. We need more clubs, more pitches and more coaches who are prepared to work with children across a wide range of abilities.

Just as importantly, we need to look at how decisions about league entry are being made. There is an obvious problem when established clubs can have a meaningful influence over whether new clubs are allowed into the same competitions. However well intentioned the people involved may be, it creates a conflict between protecting the interests of existing clubs and growing the game.

A league should not become a closed shop. Its role should be to provide fair, well-organised competition for clubs that meet the required standards. Decisions about entry should be based on safeguarding, governance, facilities and the ability to fulfil fixtures, not on whether another club feels threatened by additional competition. Existing clubs will naturally want to protect their teams and retain their players. That is understandable. But the answer is to create an environment that players and families want to stay in, not to limit the choices available to them. New clubs should have to meet proper standards. They should be accountable, well run and capable of delivering what they promise. But once those standards are met, they deserve the same opportunity to take part as anyone else.

Grassroots football doesn’t belong to the biggest club in an area, the oldest club or the club with the most influence.It belongs to the children who want to play it. If league structures start protecting existing organisations at the expense of new opportunities, then the priorities have become the wrong way round.

The question shouldn’t be, “Do we need another club?”, It should be, “Will this club give more children the opportunity to play football?” If the answer is yes, grassroots football should be finding ways to open the door, not reasons to keep it closed.

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