Gordon Parks says £120 monthly fees price families out of football
The former SFA coach says grassroots football has become a middle-class direct debit affair and criticises a white paper for delivering nothing tangible.
By Peter Martin,
Former SFA coach Gordon Parks has said grassroots football has become a middle-class direct debit affair, with the cost of youth club football pricing families out of the game.
Speaking on The Football Show, Parks drew on his own experience of running SFA community coaching sessions in Easterhouse, Carntyne and Castlemilk. He recalled that nobody turned up to those sessions, and he put that down to two things: cost, and fears over safety.
Paying by direct debit
Parks argued that youth club football now runs on monthly direct debits, and that at £120 a month it prices families out. His description of the game at that level as a middle-class affair points to who is left able to take part. In his view, those are the households that can absorb a regular monthly charge, while others are left outside.
His account of the community sessions suggests the problem is not confined to the club game. Even where coaching was brought into those areas through the SFA, Parks said, cost and safety concerns meant the sessions drew nobody.
White paper criticised
Parks also took aim at a white paper released last summer under Andy Gould. He criticised it for delivering nothing tangible.
Taken together, his comments set out a two-part case. At club level, he says, monthly fees are shutting families out. At policy level, he says, the white paper has not produced anything concrete to change that.