Tameside Stadium, Richmond Street, Ashton-U-Lyne OL7 9HG
League Welfare Meeting Thursday 21st November 2013 Venue Curzon Ashton – Tameside Stadium 20.00
Comittee Present – John Clayton (Chairman) Brian Kennerley (Secretary) Brian Wilkinson (coordinator) Alan Cooper (coordinator)
Also present: Manchester FA County welfare Officer Helen Cullen.
Non attendees: AFC Oldham , Avro , Dukinfield Youth , FC Mavericks , Hazel Grove , Heyside , Hough End , Middleton Lads , Northside , Waterloo, Withington.
Appologies ; As advised non would be accepted.
· Opening remarks: Chairman John Clayton welcomed everyone to the Meeting and, thanked them for their attendance. JC then handed over to Brian for the role call.
· Role Call: BK took the role call and advised that a final role call would take place at the end of the meeting should anyone have arrived late. Bk then handed back over to JC for his introduction on tonight’s agenda.
· Introduction: JC asked everyone for a show of hands as to how many club welfare Officers were in attendance. He then proceeded to give an introduction as to why and when Welfare Officers were introduced to clubs within grassroots football. JC then outlined that the meeting would be broken down into 4 parts being 1. Adult Behaviour 2. Coach & Players conduct 3. The Roles of Club/League and County FA Welfare Officers 4. A workshop presentation from County FA Welfare Officer Helen Cullen.
· Adult Behaviour: JC outlined some of the issues that had been reported with regards to parental behaviour at some of the centres used by the League. These ranged from comments from spectators like “snap him” “take him out” “break his leg” to parents chastising other people’s children. JC highlighted the importance of all of our responsibilities as adults to pull together to eradicate these types of instances. JC also highlighted an instance where an employee at one of the centres in use had been hit by a car after asking a parent to move his car from a no parking zone. To date there have been 2 people banned by centres for abusive and aggressive behaviour.
· Coach & Player Conduct: Bk advised the room that since the start of the season, unacceptable conduct on the touchline from coaches was rising and it was the league’s stance that this would not be tolerated hence the call for a welfare meeting. Bk went on to highlight several instances of touchline behaviour , Coaches running onto the field of play high fiving all his players after scoring (Under 9s game) , Coaches arguing with each other on touchlines, a coach telling a player to shut up you girl and get your hair cut, these were just a few mentioned and although some may seem a little trivial all had a negative impact on some of the participants (the children) What may seem like passion about the game can also upset and frighten some of the children. Referees – BK explained that the majority of the referees that officiated within the league were also minors themselves and would openly admit that whilst they have refereed games they have felt intimidated by coaches and supporters. While we accept that they will make mistakes, they too are still learning what a difficult profession, coaches ranting is and raving trying to influence their decisions help no one at all. Coach ID Badges - Coach ID Badges were introduced to ensure that everyone on the touchline had a minimum requirement of an enhanced disclosure (CRB/CRC) BK informed everyone that various coordinators had received abuse when asking coaches where their ID Badges were, instances of this in future would be reported to club welfare officers and could result in the withdrawal of the coach ID Badge.
· The Roles of Club/League and County Welfare Officers: Helen advised the room on the roles and responsibilities of Club/League and County welfare officers. Helen highlighted the protocol that should follow in instances or welfare issues or allegations. In the first instance the incident should be reported to the club welfare officer who in turn should communicate with the welfare officer from the other club, if a satisfactory conclusion cannot be reached then the County FA welfare Officer should be contacted. At any stage of the above the League can be contacted for the purpose of mediation, any reports or statements should be sort by the Club or County FA welfare officers.
· County FA workshop Presentation: Helen showed a brief presentation regarding the structure of CRCs and explained future changes and also how to access the information through the member services side of the FA website.
· Closing Statement : JC once again thanked everyone for their attendance and stated that in the whole the majority of clubs/coaches and parents attended the weekends fixtures it a correct , positive and enthusiastic manner and it was because of the leagues pro active thinking that we wished to address the issues that had arisen even though it was a minority. JC reiterated the importance of everyone’s role and said what an important and lasting impact we all had to play with the development of the young children participating within the league.
John thanked everyone for their attendance and Brian called names on Roll Call who hadn’t responded earlier.