Sheffield's local football clubs speak out on state of pitches as concerns grow over future talent
Throughout the winter months, many semi-professional footballers and Sunday league coaches have had to become accustomed to receiving texts such as ‘games off’ or ‘match cancelled’.
Few grassroots clubs have had the facilities to cope with the poor UK weather - leading to a huge number of postponements and a massive backlog when it comes to teams finishing their seasons.
Ismail Hersi, a coach for Tusaale United, who play the majority of their matches at Ecclesall School, told The Star: “With the weather this year, we’ve had a lot of cancellations and now we have to squeeze in a lot of games in a short period.
“Often we’re playing two matches a week, with a lot of them taking place midweek, and with that comes a lot of challenges for coaches, players and parents, who have commitments like work and school - particularly when playing away from home.”
Tusaale play their matches in a number of different locations, which are mainly council pitches.
“The facilities here can be quite poor,” he said. “And there's a lack of availability in terms of 3G [artificial] pitches.
“When they are available they are also extremely expensive which is far from ideal.”
Ismail believes the standard of grassroots facilities in the UK are in stark contrast from what he’s seen elsewhere in Europe.
“I hope in the future to see better facilities. We go to European countries like the Netherlands and you see the types of facilities available and the kids can’t believe it. It’s top notch and we would love to get closer to that. Sometimes I think grassroots can be neglected slightly, especially when looking at how much money there is in the Premier League.”
It’s many kids’ dream to become a footballer and follow in the footsteps of Sheffield-born England stars such as Kyle Walker and Harry Maguire, who have enjoyed long careers in the top-flight - along with Billy Sharp - the Championship’s all-time leading goalscorer and a three-time promotion winner at Sheffield United.
Ryan Davis, an academy coach at Sheffield Wednesday, who also works with Killamarsh Dynamos, shared concerns about funding and the strain that trying to pay for 3G pitches can put on parents.
Ryan said: "Unfortunately the access to football pitches in the area is not very good. And the costs that parents are paying are not at the standard they should expect.
“To say we are the biggest grassroots league in England, it’s a poor state of affairs as pitches don’t really allow many kids to play much during the winter. Grass pitches are nearly always flooded, vandalised, the equipment’s always broken and if you do then want to pay for a 3G pitch - the cost element gets in the way.
“This leads to some kids dropping out and leagues becoming really congested later in the season. What happens is kids end up playing multiple times in a week, and this leads to injuries.”
Martin Windle, who has been involved with Ecclesall Rangers Junior Football Club for 38 years, gave a more positive view of the council while also shedding light on some of the other challenges that local clubs face.
“I’ve done it for 38 years and we’ve had some of the worst weather conditions,” he said
“I think actually the council are doing their best. We’ve had to cancel a few games, but I don’t want to point the finger at the council this time as they’ve actually been really good to us over the last year.”
Martin added that drainage is one of the main issues teams have to face, but added that it can be an expensive problem to solve. Another major concern, however, is the fact that his team’s pitch at Whirlow playing fields is often plagued by a persistent dog muck problem.
“You wouldn’t believe the amount we have to move before a game,” said Martin.
“We sometimes actually keep a score of the number of bags we use. It's that bad. The record last year was 16 bags before a morning game in March. Even before an average training session you can guarantee we have to pick up at least five before we can even get started with a warm-up.”
Sheffield is the birthplace of football, and the place where the rules of the sport were first written up 168 years ago. Steve Wood, a trustee for the Home of Football, admitted from that he’d like to see more of the money from the top of the game trickle down the pyramid to further enhance grassroots football.
Steve said: “In terms of funding I know a lot of grassroots teams can find it really tough.
“I think more of the money the sport makes should trickle down from the Premier League to grassroots.
“Sheffield FC and Hallam FC can lean into the fact they are the oldest teams in the country and entice audiences to go and see them play. However, other teams don’t have that same luxury.”
These challenges stretch well beyond Sheffield into other areas of South Yorkshire as well as further up and down the country.
Treeton Terriers chairman James Billson, who is based in Rotherham, said: “There are major challenges throughout the county to find pitches that are flat, not waterlogged, areas that don’t have dog fouling, burnt out cars on or smashed bottles and cans left about.
“We need to see some improvements with our national side and that starts from the bottom up. We need to give kids the best environments and the best pitches so that they can develop into the best players they can be.”