The beautiful game has been in the news of late for quite frankly ugly reasons, the greed of the apparent ‘big six’ clubs and their decision to leave the football league and form a stale European Super League was greeted with about as much excitement as another lockdown.
If there is a silver lining to the whole big-six debacle it is this, people have started to look at the big clubs as money-making-machines and there’s been a bit of resistance against them, so instead people are turning their attention to local football. These teams are more in-tune with their communities and are far more accessible and affordable than the big franchises of the Premier League. Grassroots football starts with youth football and Emma Farnham of Hawkinge Youth FC said this of the matter “lots of our local teams and the lower league teams have really suffered financially during the last 15 months so it’s so important to support them now if you can. Watching a football match is so enjoyable and can be quite a social occasion, you can meet friends, eat, drink and enjoy a great game of football, all whilst having the benefit of fresh air too”.
CommunityAd are inclined to agree wholeheartedly with her, who needs European Super Leagues when you can watch the under 18s lift trophies here in Hawkinge? We had a pleasure of a chat with Emma.
So firstly, Emma, how hard has it been this past fifteen months for Hawkinge Youth FC and its members?
It has certainly been a very difficult and unpredictable 15 months! We had last season made null and void by all the leagues which was disappointing for all the players and coaches, but with all grassroots football stopped from March until August there really was little choice. But our coaches worked hard keeping in touch on the WhatsApp groups, some set mini challenges to keep the younger players entertained and to help with fitness. We then had training and some matches but we had some teams needing to isolate, then had to stop again for January and February so it’s been very changeable.
But we really are a football family so we missed all our players, coaches and their families so it was lovely to have everyone back recently.
It must have felt amazing to get back on the training ground again, to see the joy on people’s faces?
It was wonderful to see everyone returning to football at the end of March, honestly everyone was smiling, so happy to see each other, coaches, players, parents. I have never seen so many smiling faces, it really was lovely.
What would you say to any readers with youngsters who fancy themselves as a footballer? Why should they get involved?
To become involved in your local community, meet new faces, build friendships, help with fitness, to maintain wellbeing, being out in the fresh air, learning new skills, learning to be part of a team and the social skills that brings. Not forgetting the joy of playing football.
Great news about the under 18s, do you have anything you’d like to say to them?
This team have been fantastic, they play in the year above so all these boys are only in year 11 but play boys in year 12 and 13, they have done fantastically well to get to and to win their final. Within this team we have 5 boys that have played for us since they were 6 years old, so it’s lovely to see them still here and enjoying their football, as well as reaping the rewards.
Emma adds “The Kent FA have seen the need to help support and protect the mental health of young people and with that in mind at the end of last year they set up the Mental Health Champions, where there are 58 of us, myself included, that are now trained to be mental health champions, signposting those that need it to professional help, to online support groups or just to listen to our young people. This has already proven beneficial and we meet regularly to share ideas and come up with ways to get the message across that there is always someone to talk to”.