Grassroots Football

[plague]

No, it only helps the clubs with SAP build.

Be clear about that. Everyone else is left out in the cold. It is very hard to develop juniors when you know they are going to leave for something you can not offer.

Our club may only play in the Zone League, but I cant remember the last time a junior came through to play in our squad because they are all taken away from the club by the SAP and NPL systems leaving us with very few teams over the age of 12.

Makes it hard to build when Juniors are lured away.

absolutely fair point.
but what do you do about it?

because you already have clubs running SAP programs making noise that a certain couple of clubs are trying to poach their better players to bolster their squads.

however we want to look at it, the kids with the highest ambitions will always want to be at the clubs with the biggest ambitions.

there is one club doing SAP that is not in NPL that has a well laid out plan to get to NPL and succeed. they have done well in SAP and are hell bent on playing with the 'big boys' within 5-10 years.

you might have to ask yourself does your club have the same ambitions? because if not you cant blame anyone for walking away to the bigger shinier thing. its what we all do in life with work, partners, houses. its how humans are wired these days.

so do you go full on into 'ambition mode' in the hope of getting the kids in to kick start a revolution, or do you wait til you have the players then apply for the big show?
unfortunately, for clubs run by a lot of hard working volunteers, with limited resources the answer isnt so simple.

it wouldnt shock me if in the foreseeable future clubs merge or disappear*. Football is completely different from what is was 10 years ago, as it was 50 years before that. and it will be different again 20 years from now.





*the club i stated with no longer exists, its sad, but thats life i guess.