A discussion has started in the last week or so about the merits of switching winter football to summer. The debate has come about because since early November many of our weekend football matches have been postponed, either because of waterlogged or frozen pitches; or because in order to protect the pitches the relevant local authority has closed the playing fields for that weekend.
The advantages for playing summer football are quite clear. Playing in warmer conditions on firmer playing surfaces means players will develop better skills - you only need to look at Brazil and Spain to work that one out. Many of our youngsters have to develop skills like trapping a ball in an inch of mud, running through puddles or how to take a throw-in with frozen fingers rather than the skills of the likes of Fabregas, Messi, Ronaldo et al.
Other advantages are light nights - this enables games to be played midweek but also for clubs to train on grass thus reducing the cost of expensive astro turf training facilities, reducing club overheads in these crucial times of austerity.
By playing regularly you are unlikely to encounter players losing interest by having long periods of time in between games and training due to inclement weather.
There are some hurdles to overcome though. Player availability during the summer may be an issue - and that's not player availability in terms of your best player has been picked for the town team - it's around family holidays. Some families have caravans or tents and use the summer weekends to take short breaks - which may prevent their children's involvement.
Pitch availability may be an issue - many Councils use the 3 months in the summer to repair and reseed the pitches.
Finally the competition from other summer sports, in particular cricket, may affect player availability. Some that don't know how cricket works don't understand that it can be played 7 days a week at a club (depending on how many junior sides you have) which would prevent coaches and co-ordinators from staying involved in football whilst it was underway at the same time.
The overlap in March, April and May is tough enough now, without totally overlapping the seasons. Those 3 months see me out 5 nights a week as well as Saturday and Sunday and test my marriage to the full!! I often have to choose between coaching a football or cricket team and therefore all my players, football or cricket, don't get the best from me. In terms of administration we are at the outset of a new cricket season so there's membership, kit, league entry, team management as well as coaching (and I play a bit too so there's practice). The football season is coming to a close at this point so you are trying to bring together the end of season fixture congestion, as well as arranging end of season trips, presentation nights, fund raisers on top of usual coaching, fixture arranging etc.
So for me I am not in favour of football moving to summer. It is a selfish view I agree but I would be forced to choose between the sports and that means one of the sports I love, and am passionate about, would be robbed of my input and dare I say it, skills?
What's the alternative though? As a boss I have always encouraged my staff to come to me with a problem but also with a suggested solution. So if summer football isn't a viable option what can we do to negate the 3 month break we usually get due to bad weather?
I would suggest planning a 3 month break. Plan the league around a break between mid-November and mid February. This means small divisions, around 8 teams - 7 games between Sept & Nov and 7 games between Feb-May add. A couple of rounds of the cup into both halves and you have a season. There you go simple as that !!!!!!
Other more fundamental infrastructure is necessary though. On Saturday my under 9s Greens played Ladybridge at the ESSA Academy in Bolton. They have a quite brilliant 4G facility and to see it full of under 8 and under 9 footballers was brilliant. These are the facilities we need more of. Bolton Arena, ESSA Academy, Leigh Sport Village are a rare commodity and clubs should be looking to form partnerships with schools to raise the necessary funds to fund their construction. In my area Whelley, Aspull Juniors, New Springs Lions and Aspull RUFC could get together and apply for some funding to provide such as facility. This would be a fantastic community asset but may also create local employment as well as contributing to the wider health, social inclusion and Big Society agendas.
This is the way we can keep tradition with football played in the winter and cricket played in the summer. Besides if we have another summer like last year it may be cricket that looks to winter and not the other way round!!!
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