Sky Sports.com

Changing face of the game: getting changed in carparks is a regular occurrence

As long as we're playing the game, does it matter what format of football is being played? The answer is yes: many people can't afford the price of hiring 5-a-side pitches at specialist facilities, so they simply don't play. Oh, and there's the fact that England play 11, not 5-a-side, so the decline of the principle form of the game should concern us all.

Dan Roan
Quotes of the week

STATE OF THE GAME
Mondays, Sky Sports News
STUDIO DEBATE
Monday nights, Sky Sports News
To see the previous State of the Game reports click HERE

The fourth report in our special series of investigations into the state of grassroots football was arguably the most important of all.

The FA's recent National Game Strategy identified five targets concerning the future development and health of our national sport, but number one on their list was to raise participation - the number of people playing football.

We discovered that the sport has a major problem - the numbers of us playing the traditional form of the game (11-a-side) are falling drastically.

In order to get a true measure of the scale of the situation nationally we visited three very different leagues in three very different parts of the country.

The Hitchin Sunday League in Hertfordshire blamed poor facilities for the decrease in registered player numbers. The local council has decided to close down several club-houses and pavilions at a number of pitches in recent years leaving many players with nowhere to change, shower or go to the toilet.

No surprise then that players have drifted away from the league in favour of other, better resourced pursuits.

The League's Treasurer, Allen Lowe, has heroically managed to preserve some of the pavilions and has successfully applied for a Football Foundation grant for a brand new facility in Letchworth. As a result, participation has steadily recovered after years of decline, but elsewhere other factors are at play.

The Sussex Sunday League used to be the biggest in the world with over 300 teams, but now just 150 are left, and Dave Beatty, the league's Secretary, blames the FA. He believes the grassroots 11-a-side clubs are neglected - given no financial assistance - and points to the crippling costs of pitch and facility hire, referees, affiliation, insurance, and fines that are forcing many clubs to fold.

In jeopardy

The Devon Kingsley League is 82 years old but it's now in jeopardy after just eight teams signed up to take part next year. Years of tradition and a vital part of the local community will be lost unless more teams can be found.

Here, they see the rise of the 5-a-side game as the principle reason for decline. The small sided format offers decent facilities, flexibility, is ideal for the modern busy lifestyle, and there's no need for referees and other costs attached to 11-a-side football.

There's no doubt that 5-a-side is on the rise and it looks likely there'll soon be more small sided teams than 11-a-side ones. In fact we discovered that the number of adult male 11-a-side teams has fallen by 2,000 in the last two years, while 1,500 more 5-a-side teams have been created.

For companies offering dedicated 5-a-side facilities, business is booming, with firms like Powerleague and Goals Soccer Centres reporting huge profits and plans to expand into Europe.

But as long as we're playing the game, does it matter what format of football is being played? Futsal and Futbal de Salao are great for developing touch and skills anyway so does it matter if they become more popular than 11-a-side?

For various reasons, the answer is yes. Many people can't afford the price of hiring 5-a-side pitches at specialist facilities, so they simply don't play. There's the cost to the local community when 11-a-side clubs with many years' standing fall out of existence. Oh, and then there's the fact that England play 11, not 5-a-side; so the decline of the principle form of the game should concern us all.

The fact is that this trend can be explained by a number of factors, some of which we've already dealt with in this series: bad behaviour towards match officials drives referees out of the game, making it harder to organise matches. Bad facilities have the same effect.

There's also a social phenomenon at play which the FA is powerless to prevent: people are busier and want a more flexible, quicker, time-efficient form of the game - fives satisfies that demand.

Women's football, mini soccer and disabled teams are all on the up; but the FA needs to tackle a major issue: the huge drop-out rate of teenagers from football.

Drop-outs

More 16-25 year olds give up the game in England than in any other country in Europe. The FA say they're investing in more under 18 and under 21 leagues, but what they should do is get rid of the rule which dictates that from the age of 16, rolling subs are outlawed in amateur football.

It's no surprise that being left shivering on the touchline for 90 minutes is no incentive to stay in the game!

There are parts of the country where footballing participation is worryingly low and they tend to be deprived inner city areas, with few open spaces.

Fewer people play football in the London borough of Lambeth than anywhere else in England - a population of 266,000 people, but just seven mini-soccer teams for under 11s!; only 37 11-a-side teams; just one of the 80 schools has a full size outdoor pitch, and there's just five sites where football can be played on grass.

Disturbing statistics, but ones which are replicated throughout London - proportionally there should be 3,500 more teams than there actually are in the capital - such a deficiency is criminal in a city that will stage the Olympics in 2012.

Colin King is a community coach in Lambeth and has been fighting for greater equality in sport for the last decade. He blames the FA and its structure for not dealing with such areas, describing the amount of undiscovered talent in these places as a tragedy.

His nephews, Marlon King of Wigan, and Johnny Bostock of Crystal Palace both came from the streets of Brixton - but many, many more never had a chance because of the lack of sporting facilities.

When it comes to participation, the FA faces a major challenge - to halt the slide of 11-a-side; to help those areas where football is out of reach; to support the estimated million youngsters in England who want to play the sport but have nowhere to play; to continue its good work with the growth of disabled football; 5-a-side; the women's game; to tackle the drastic under-representation of Muslims in the sport, and to stop the haemorrhaging of teenage players.

Doing so won't be easy, but the goal must be to make the national sport truly a game for all.

To comment on Dan's blog or the State of the Game findings, click here or use the feedback form below...