Role of the Club in Youth Football.
18th January 2011

A football club in today's modern game offers a safe, enjoyable and fun environment in which the young player can enjoy the sport.

A well run football club can have a profound impact on its members and the community which it serves, especially creating and developing a responsibility of care and respect.

The FA Charter Standard guidelines which clubs now adopt have an effect on young players who have to abide by them, while also ensuring they are safe from risks imposed by over enthusiastic and pushy parents. Codes of conduct provide common sense guidelines for the values and behaviour of everyone connected with the club. These codes are there to ensure everyone shows respect towards one another and each of us has a high standard of behaviour.

A well run football club offers a high level of social impact and responsibility, in that it provides an environment of recreation that is sociable and fun where its members strive to do their best for the good of the individual, team and club as a whole.

A football club brings many benefits to its members who need to create a foundation of discipline and rules that sets out a high level of behaviour, values and attitudes while maintaining fun, enjoyment and safety for all. These rules must be in place and known be everyone before a ball is kicked, and are not only targeted towards the players, but more importantly to its coaches, parents and spectators.

In today's society where children are so protected they are discouraged from playing in the street, and in which very few children venture beyond the boundaries of their own bedrooms, the football club offers a unique place for social interaction and physical exercise, which a school of other establishment cannot. As such the soccer club should be heralded for creating a positive learning environment for our young people.

Clubs are often derided for headline stories which sometimes appear in the papers, though in reality the negative press which youth football gets is few and far between, and at the heart of every good club is a sense of responsibility and social welfare for all its players, which goes beyond the playing of the game itself.