As is my habit, once a week I trawl through the forums having a peek at what is being said and just lately I’ve noticed a similar thread appearing in nearly all of them, the request for volunteers to get clubs, their pitches and facilities ready for the new season.

As always it seems the same few at each club do the work that no one else wants to do, with some of the messages becoming more desperate in their requests for help as the season draws ever nearer. On one forum in particular there where replies to the effect of “Why should we, isn’t our undying support at games enough?” I’ll leave you to respond to that but when you take a closer, longer look at the situation; it does reflect what is happening to our football in general.

The average age of supporters of non league football goes up every year with very little new blood coming in anywhere, this then reflects itself with the increasing age of the club stalwart committee members who do so much that goes unnoticed by the paying ‘masses’. With no younger people prepared to take on the commitment that sitting on the committee requires (I’m as guilty as the next person for that but at 46 is my blood young enough??), and all those jobs that need doing that are always done by committee members. The only youngsters coming into the game are the players who, once their career is over, seem to disappear from the game altogether.

I’m not having a go at anyone because I have seen it from both sides even if only for a brief period. My reasons for staying clear of sitting on a committee are purely selfish; I like to watch the football! I can’t be doing with making teas or selling raffle tickets and the like but I can, and possibly should, make myself available once or twice a week to do the strimming/hedge cutting/rubbish clearing/toilet unblocking that ends up being done by those overworked committee men and women throughout the country.

The club is there for us when we need it, 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, its only right that we should be there for the club when it needs us.

Isn’t it?

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 19th, 2008 at 4:25 am and is filed under Football News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.