It’s easy to judge a footballer, isn’t it? We like to think we know who they are, how they act, what makes them tick. But the path to the top is fraught with uneven terrain, challenges and obstacles. Overcoming is too often dependent on the lottery of birth – and there is an explanation.
The phenomenon of Sunday league has a sort of folkloric place in British life. In many ways, it’s part of our national identity. Anyone that’s had the joy of kicking a ball on a windy, frozen Sunday morning knows the challenges: a pitch barely suitable for grazing cattle, an unbelievably wide spectrum of talent, cringe-worthy tackles and eyebrow-raising tactical advice and coaching. Any player capable of putting in a performance that’ll catch the eye of an academy scout in those circumstances is thoroughly deserving of that recognition.
Consider then the difference between a well-off, well-run club compared with one doing its best to simply put out a team each week. Maybe the well-run club has a functioning clubhouse with showers, a kitchen, more volunteers – which might well attract coaches of higher quality, which will add that extra layer of professionalism and development to a young players’ game. For young players looking to make it in the game, these things all make a difference. The basic reality is that a greater number of these clubs exist in the South of England.
In cities, different challenges arise. Where green spaces are few and far between, it stands to reason that cage football is the go-to format. In London, for example, the football talents of players who frequent the city’s football cages – so often the beating heart of a youthful community – has become the stuff of legend itself. The tight spaces and informal setting force players to develop new skills, to think quicker, to keep the ball closer to their bodies – to entertain. There is less likely to be an organised tactical approach, coaching, a game plan. But increasingly, academies are discovering that those who have grown up playing this style of football have the talent and intelligence to transfer those skills to a more professional setup. It’s a long-overdue shift.
“I always enjoyed playing football in south London because of the amount of talent it has. I grew up playing in the cages of south London with many academy players and older players. This meant for me to cope I had to be quicker and learn how to deal with physical players from an early age. The cages are also a place to express yourself and show your talent, which meant it developed my 1 on 1 play and ball control in tight areas. Overall south London is an amazing place to play football and produces many academy ballers.”
Aaron Loupalo-Bi
Here is, of course, no such thing as a perfect pathway. Some players are picked up by academies at the age of seven and rise through the system, others drop in and out, and some skirt the non-league circuit right up until their 20s and catch their break late in their career (hello, Jamie Vardy). But what is clear is that the chances of a young player even finding a pathway can come down to something as simple as how well looked-after their local park, field or cage is.
Zooming out…
The FA, it should be said from the outset, deserve credit. Building St. George’s Park, developing both the senior men’s and women’s teams to a competitive standard on the international stage, nurturing a philosophy across all age groups, and constructing a clear pathway for success – all have been the fruitful products of a long-term, clearly implemented strategy.
The rebuilding of the national team infrastructure should be a shining example as to how, as a grassroots level, the divide that exists between areas that succeed in nurturing talent and those that struggle can be overcome.
Sadly, this level of boldness and creativity has been lacking beyond the most elite structures.
A 2023 House of Commons’ Committee report on grassroots participation in sport and physical activity could not have captured the situation in clearer terms, stating simply: “The Department [for Culture Media and Sport] lacks a compelling vision.”
Vision is what constructs the pathways. Without it, young players that progress beyond grassroots football into academies do so – without exception – in spite of their surroundings. But what has so hampered the chances of so many potential young players is not, solely, a lack of funding, but a lack of imagination and an understanding of peoples’ needs. Indeed we’ve seen through various recent initiatives that funding doesn’t always equal success.
In February 2024, the government unveiled the Multi-Sports Facilities Programme, designed to invest over £320 million between 2021 and 2025 to “level up facilities across the whole of the UK.” Ensuring that “communities have a high-quality pitch to play on” is, according to the announcement, at the heart of the policy – itself an unsaid recognition that such facilities are currently few and far between.
The picture of the programme’s results so far demonstrates a stark reality. While 900 of these projects have kicked off in England, there are just 40 underway in Scotland – a chasm of inexplicable proportions.
“I started out at a training school on a Saturday morning and the guy who ran it used to be a footballer for Birmingham City so he had quite a few links. As soon as I got there and he saw me play, he said he would take me to West Brom as soon as I turned six. After my sixth birthday, I had a trial and within a few sessions the club committed to me. Ever since then I signed fully at the age of nine and have worked my way up through the age groups receiving a five-year contract at the age of 11, then a scholarship at 15, to now a pro at 17.”
Cole Deeming
What’s more, the spread throughout the projects across England are similarly unbalanced.
There are the same number of funding projects underway in the Greater Newcastle area as there are across the entire county of Oxfordshire (20), despite the city in the North East having a population density almost 10 times’ higher.
Such a discrepancy can only be explained by this government’s persistent inability to meet the demands of those living in the North of England. It’s been 10 years since former Chancellor George Osbourne spawned the idea of the “Northern Powerhouse”, just four years after embarking on a cut-throat campaign of austerity that has seen real-terms funding fall by 40% since 2010. The ushering-in of this political landscape, devoid of ingenuity or forward-thinking, has set the tone for the best part of a decade-and-a-half now, and shows no sign of abating.
Beyond the dynamics of the North-South divide, the Midlands is often overlooked, but it’s just as susceptible to ruin as anywhere else. Merely weeks on from the bankruptcy of the Labour-run Birmingham City Council and it’s clear that, as a result, social care and children’s services will fall victim to the biggest cuts in local authority history.
How can anyone – especially those for whom football is often an escape from reality – be expected to succeed when the rug is pulled out from underneath? This, regardless of where you come from in the UK, is the key question. We should recognise that inside every young player is the ability to overcome, while not falling into the trap of assuming that jumping these barriers should be an ingrained part of the path to success.
