When Did Grassroots Football Stop Being for Every Child?

Grassroots football is supposed to be for every child. Yet by the age of seven or eight, some children are already being judged on whether they are good enough to deserve the opportunities that football is supposed to provide. Across social media, it is increasingly common to see grassroots clubs advertising for players of a particular standard, division or position. Saturday and Sunday teams recruit players who are already playing at a high level. Local grassroots clubs announce “new signings” and post photographs of seven- and eight-year-olds being presented with shirts. None of this is necessarily wrong. Children who are talented and passionate about football should have opportunities to progress. Competitive football has a place too. The question is what happens to the children who are not yet very good. My own experience of this began when my son was playing under-8 football. He was seven or eight years old. I will keep him, his team and our location anonymous because this is not about criticising one club or one coach. It is about a wider question concerning what we want grassroots football to be. My son has dyspraxia, which means that physical skills and coordination can take him longer to develop. He needs more repetition, more practice and more time than some of his peers. He loves football. As a parent, I wanted him to have a positive experience of being part of a team. I wanted him to make friends, enjoy being active, develop confidence and simply feel that football was somewhere he belonged. As the team became more competitive, however, his slower development began to affect his opportunities. He was singled out and sidelined. His playing time reduced. Eventually, we were told that equal playing time was no longer working because the team was losing and the priority was to give the team the best possible chance of winning. We were subsequently told that unless his footballing ability improved, his future with the team was uncertain. After months of being sidelined lined we decided to leave. At under-8 level. I do not believe my son should automatically have received more playing time because he has additional needs. Competition and winning have a place in children’s football. The difficult question is what happens when a child who is less developed is given fewer opportunities to play and develop because they are less developed in the first place. That can create a cycle. Children who already have more opportunities can play more football. They may play for Saturday and Sunday teams, attend development centres, have private coaching or go to additional training sessions. Their parents may have the time, money and flexibility to pursue every opportunity that appears. They get more practice. They improve. Their improvement creates more opportunities. Other children may only have their weekly grassroots session. Their parents may work weekends or shifts, have other children to care for, struggle financially or simply be unable to afford additional football. They may not have the transport, time or flexibility to attend trials and extra sessions. They get fewer opportunities and develop more slowly. Their slower development can then become the reason they receive fewer opportunities. At that point, are we measuring ability or are we partly measuring opportunity? This matters particularly when children are only seven or eight. Children develop at very different rates. A child who struggles with coordination at seven may look very different at ten. A child who is physically smaller may catch up. A child who needs ten repetitions to learn something another child learns in three may simply need more time. If we reduce that child’s opportunities because they are behind, how will we ever know what they could have become? There is also a much wider equality issue here. We often describe grassroots sport as accessible and inclusive. In reality, children do not necessarily arrive at the pitch with the same opportunities behind them. Some have played hundreds of additional hours. Some have private coaching. Some play for multiple teams. Some have parents who can respond immediately when a club advertises a trial. Others do not. Some children also face barriers that have nothing to do with their parents’ choices or commitment. They may be neurodivergent. They may have a disability. They may be less physically developed than their peers. They may lack confidence or simply be late developers. None of these things necessarily tells us what that child might become. Yet increasingly, it seems that children are being asked to demonstrate their ability before they are given the opportunity to develop it. That feels particularly uncomfortable at grassroots level. There is a difference between selecting the best players and developing the best players that a group of children might become. Those two things are not necessarily the same. I am not arguing that every child should play the same amount of football regardless of circumstances. I am not arguing against competitive teams, talented players or development pathways. I am asking what grassroots football is for. If its purpose is partly to develop children, then surely there needs to be room for children who are not yet very good. My son’s experience has made me think about what happens when a child is told, directly or indirectly, that they are not keeping up. At seven or eight, that message can come surprisingly early. The danger is that a child who is already less confident starts to believe that they are not good enough. They may stop wanting to attend. They may stop trying. Eventually, they may leave football altogether. The child who perhaps needed football most may be the child who loses it. That matters to me not only as a parent but also as a GP. I see the impact that poor mental health can have on men. I see how difficult it can be for some men to form friendships and social connections, particularly later in life. In our local area, a men’s support group uses football as a way of helping men come together and socialise. Football provides a reason to turn up. The football itself matters, but so does everything around it: the friendships, the conversation, the sense of belonging and having somewhere you are expected to be. I would like my son to have that experience one day. I would like to imagine him being miles from home in the future and someone asking him if he wants to join a five-a-side game. I would like him to be able to walk into a pub team, meet people and feel that football is something he can belong to. I do not want his lasting memory of football to be that he was the child who was not good enough. Grassroots football has an important role in developing talented players. There should be pathways for children who want to progress. There should be competitive football for children who enjoy competition. There should also be space for children who are still developing. Perhaps we need to ask a different question when we look at a seven-year-old footballer. Not simply, “How good are they?” Perhaps we should ask, “What opportunities have they had?” Then ask the more important question: “What might they become if we give them the opportunity?” Every child will not become a great footballer. Every child should, however, have the opportunity to discover what they can become. If grassroots football is genuinely football for all, perhaps that should mean more than allowing every child through the door. It should mean not deciding too early which children are worth developing.