{"id":5260,"date":"2020-05-01T10:46:03","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T10:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/?p=5260"},"modified":"2020-05-01T10:46:07","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T10:46:07","slug":"preserving-grassroots-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2020\/05\/01\/preserving-grassroots-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Preserving Grassroots Football"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With sports currently on hold due to lockdown, Reading\u2019s Dr James Reade, speaks to CONNECTED about how the landscape for grassroots football might look once the COVID-19 crisis is over.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Over the recent weeks, we\u2019ve heard a lot about Premier League footballers and their salaries. But the lifeblood of any sport is at its grassroots \u2013 the football that is played on local playing fields between teams of all ages. But how are these local games going to survive COVID-19?<\/p>\n

Work versus leisure <\/strong><\/h4>\n

Dr Reade, from Reading\u2019s Department of Economics<\/a> \u2013 alongside his colleague, Dr Daniel Parnell, from the University of Liverpool \u2013 argue that it is all about how we define leisure against work.<\/p>\n

\u201cEconomists make a clear, and usually fairly crude distinction between work and leisure. All time not working is leisure, whether that be sleeping or playing online games. Leisure is everything you do that isn\u2019t work. However, this distinction becomes blurred when leisure requires work, for example, homeschooling children or organising leisure activities.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAnd we value some leisure activities \u2013 ones that provide a greater social good \u2013 over others. For example, playing a team sport is better than playing an offline computer game alone, since the former involves exercise as well as socialising. In addition, a team sport may be interesting for spectators too.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

“There are social benefits over and above the benefit to the individual. Economists have always used this argument to make the case for government support for certain activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the social benefits Dr Reade describes, over the years, government support for arts, cultural and sporting activities has become more and more economic in nature. Successive governments have sought to measure the economic value in everything, ignoring the social goods and other hard-to-measure benefits. For example, funding for Olympic sports is provided on a cost-effectiveness basis to improve the UK medal chances in key sports over anything else.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the grassroots level of football, it is not clear what the measure of success is as there aren\u2019t gold medals to be won, but success matters deeply on a local level. There will always be a tension between sport being competitive \u2013 about winning \u2013 and sporting being about the taking part \u2013 participation. The question is whether we have moved too far towards the economically competitive, and whether COVID-19 will cause us to lose many grassroots clubs and leagues? Will the training be different with social distancing post-lockdown? What will team demographics look like? Will COVID-19 leave us with a different model for grassroots sport?<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe UK has an incredibly rich ecology of leagues throughout all the age ranges, which teams can enter into. It\u2019s easy to take for granted \u2013 but youth teams rely on progression, on leagues existing right through the age ranges, and across ability ranges, too. If gaps begin to appear, this may reduce the willingness and ability of teams to form.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cPhilanthropic giving is one possibility to protect grassroots football \u2013 when activities have social benefits, we hope that generous people will choose to donate to them and keep them alive post-lockdown. However, due to COVID-19, there will be less scope for charitable donations if the economy shrinks so we should not rely on charity alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

What can be done?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Dr Reade argues that perhaps the most effective argument, given the current climate, is to appeal to the economic after all and try to weigh up relative values and costs. He says:<\/p>\n

\u201cA more physically active population is a healthier population, and one with fewer lifestyle-related diseases imposing costs upon the state via healthcare. A society with more outlets for the energies of people, especially younger people, is surely one where crime rates and incarceration rates are lower, and hence again costs on the state are reduced.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cFootball, which appeals to all ages and genders, is surely a cost-effective instrument to mitigate both of these costs, as well as bringing social benefits to individuals and communities across the land.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Find out more about Dr Reade\u2019s research<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With sports currently on hold due to lockdown, Reading\u2019s Dr James Reade, speaks to CONNECTED about how the landscape for grassroots football might look once the COVID-19 crisis is over.   Over the recent weeks, we\u2019ve heard a lot about Premier League footballers and their salaries. But the lifeblood of any sport is at its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":5261,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[64,20,85,90,95,88,94,56],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPreserving Grassroots Football - Connected<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With sports on hold due to lockdown, Dr James Reade, speaks to CONNECTED about how the landscape for grassroots football might look once the crisis is over.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2020\/05\/01\/preserving-grassroots-football\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Preserving Grassroots Football - Connected\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With sports on hold due to lockdown, Dr James Reade, speaks to CONNECTED about how the landscape for grassroots football might look once the crisis is over.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2020\/05\/01\/preserving-grassroots-football\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Connected\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-01T10:46:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-01T10:46:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/04\/Untitled-design-8.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"550\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"chelseadavey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"chelseadavey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2020\/05\/01\/preserving-grassroots-football\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2020\/05\/01\/preserving-grassroots-football\/\",\"name\":\"Preserving Grassroots Football - 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