Wiltshire football club hoping government will change grassroots decision
Around 100,000 people have signed a petition so far.
After the FA announced that all 'non-elite' football will be suspended during lockdown, one Wiltshire club is calling on the government to make u-turn on their decision.
Durrington FC are supporting a national petition asking for grassroots football to continue over the next month.
From tomorrow (Thursday 5th November) until December 2nd, all fixtures and training will be cancelled for:
- Steps 3-6 of the National League System
- Tiers 3-7 of the Women’s Football Pyramid
- The Regional NLS Feeder Leagues
- The Barclays FA WSL Academy League
- FA Girls Regional Talent Clubs
- Indoor and outdoor youth and adult grassroots football
Durrington's Covid and Development officer, Stuart Andrews, said:
"It is all very frustrating, and we don't want to go back to where we were, and we don't want to put anyone at risk.
But with everything our kids have been through during the lockdown, just having football and being part of a team is a massive lifeline. The thought that there will be no more until December is a real blow. It's not just the kids, it's the parents as well, coming to train and play is an escape mechanism for everyone, and it is really important.
Some young boys and girls who literally joined us last week now can't do anything for a month or even longer."
Stuart says that even if fixtures are still cancelled to stop teams travelling around, just doing training would benefit their players both mentally and physically.
CORONAVIRUS FUNDING
There has been some good news for the club recently, though.
They have been given a boost of £5,000 from Wiltshire Community Foundation's Coronavirus Response and Recovery Fund.
It's new funding will pay for rent, buy new kit and equipment and set up a hardship fund for families who can't afford the subscriptions.
During the first lockdown, the club had to spend money on extra equipment while they also halved their membership costs to help families.
Mr Andrews added:
"During the first lockdown we reduced our fees by 50 per cent to help families, many of them are on low incomes. But we still had to pay our rent to Avon Valley College where we play and cover things like insurance. Just starting up for the season cost £1,500 and we had to find an extra £1,000 we didn't have for sanitiser stations and extra equipment we needed to buy to help the kids socially distance.
"If we hadn't got the grant we wouldn't have been able to replace football strips, we wouldn't have been able to guarantee we had sufficient funds for the rent for the year and at last one family wouldn't be coming anymore because they couldn't afford the fees.
Without the support of organisations such as the Wiltshire Community Foundation and our sponsors we simply wouldn't exist and that's the reality."
The response fund has distributed over £925,000 to community groups across the county, since the covid-19 outbreak.