Contemporary studies in physical education Essay

There are many ways in which the sport of football is controlled and organised, a majority of the sport is monitored and controlled by governing bodies that distribute funds, organise competitions, present awards and ultimately promote the sport so that football can be accessible to everyone. One of the main football governing bodies is UEFA. The Union of European Football Associations governs football all over Europe and makes sure the rules that are formed by this organisation are enforced and abided by, as well as organising competitions and so on. Moreover, as I live in Wales I will talk about the Football Association of Wales or FAW. The FAW are more of a regional organisation that relay rules etc. from UEFA and make sure that there are competitions, and matches taking place all over Wales, as well as distributing limited funds to grass roots schemes and to various clubs in the region. The FAW are based in Cardiff, the capitol, of Wales, which is, in itself relevant as it means that it is easily located. Here are some details I obtained from UEFA.com: Personnel: Communications: President Address Desmond W. Shanklin. Plymouth Chambers, 3 Westgate General Secretary Street GB – David George Collins. Cardiff CF10 1DP Head Coach Telephone Leslie Mark Hughes. +44 29 2037 2325 Press Officer Fax David George Collins. +44 29 2034 3961 As you can see there are quite a number of personnel working at the top of the FAW, these people make sure that everything goes as much to plan as possible and also make sure that there is some sort of authority associated with the sport. This governing body organises a lot of competitions around Wales resulting in leagues and league tables being formed, one such league is the Welsh Premier. There are many football clubs associated with this league ranging from Aberystwyth, Llanelli and Newtown, to Bangor, Caernarfon and Welshpool. All of these teams are entered into the Welsh Premier and compete against each other throughout the season all in the hope of winning and coming top of the table. The way to find out information on the Internet is to log on to www.uefa.com and then look out for the titles reading Welsh football Associations. Regional structure. Although UEFA are a huge organisation, they cannot control every single aspect of the game in all European countries, such as Wales. It is therefore essential that regional, intra-national organisations or governing bodies take as much control as possible and are aware of as much as possible in their area. Wales uses a pyramid system to organise its football events/competitions. The Welsh Premier is Wales’ national league and the only national competition and all leagues below it operate on a regional basis, the leagues become more localised the further down the pyramid you go. Governing bodies need to structure leagues into regional leagues so that they are more easily managed and are more organised. Like the British Premier League, many foreign countries have adopted segmented or divisional type football leagues. Wales uses this tiered league system to organise many competitions. The Welsh Premier is the top tier or first division and all those below this division are on lower tiers. The second tier consists of two leagues that each covers half of the country. The first represents South Wales and the second, central and North Wales. The champions of both these leagues are promoted to the League of Wales. However although this may sound quite simple, it gets much more complicated the further down the system you go. The similarity is that the teams that come top of the lower leagues are also eligible for promotion. As I’ve said, the system gets a lot more mixed up and complex the further down the pyramid you go, with teams having less professional players, and a lower status. The lower less well known teams face a larger competition and less chance of getting promoted due to the larger number of teams. Coaching Awards. It is obvious that if a team succeeds in a particular league and win matches, then, as well as the skill and professionalism of the players being a contributor to their success, the coach of the team must be doing a good job as well. Many organisations present awards to coaches who are seen as successful and who are leading their club well. Without coaches, teams would stand little chance of playing as a team, keeping fit and developing skills, coaches maintain the levels of professionalism whatever the status of the club. Many coaches have to go through training to acquire qualifications in order to coach at the highest level and receive award after doing so. The FA present awards to qualified coaches after they complete training courses at different levels. One such award is the FA Level 1 which is a certificate in coaching football, the course can be taken by anyone over the age of 16 and is an intensive 20 hour course that involves the person dealing with practical coaching, child protection, emergency first aid, over use injuries, child development and growth spurts. Another coaching award is from the NGB or National Governing Body of football. People who have obtained qualifications through their NGB normally go to work shops to further their experience and become better at their job. When someone has obtained qualifications and coaching awards they can pursue a career in coaching their chosen sport and can apply their knowledge acquired through previous courses to coach at various levels. Once in a part time job a coach earn anything from à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½6 to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½20 an hour and full time jobs can pay from à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½12,000 to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½20,000 per annum. Promotional/grass root schemes. It is essential for professional and semi-professional teams to be able to pick or select the next best players in order to maintain the reputation of the club and the skill levels required to reach the top of their league. Without grass root schemes young players would not be able to develop their skills or play enough to get recognised by larger clubs. Grass root schemes also make sure that young children are made aware of the benefits of football or any sport and are also taught rules, and the value of teamwork from a very young age. Sports such as football are huge and although the sport does benefit from promotional and grass root schemes, the sport does have a huge following, it is estimated that there are around 70,000 boys playing football for either schools or clubs between the age ranges of under 11 to under 16 and that over 500,000 play between the ages of 9-16. Grass roots football in the United Kingdom is the responsibility of the 43 county football associations that are affiliated with the FA and make sure everything is organised at a local level. Within the individual county associations there are technical directors that oversee the development of football players from their grass roots all the way up to the highest level of the game. There are centres all over the UK that the FA manages and that develop players at grass root levels. Promotional schemes arise all the time around the country and may take the form of celebrity appearances that may boost the turnout of the event and thus the chance of the sport appealing to more young children is increased. The ability to promote a sport such as football depends largely on the willingness of children to participate at grass roots levels and their eagerness to participate at higher levels. Ultimately the children need to have the drive or enthusiasm to take part at low levels of the sport and maintain that ambition so that they will achieve the highest possible level of success in the sport. In Wales, grass roots schemes such as Dragon Sports help to promote football and get more young children involved by using players that can be used as examples of what you can achieve if you persevere. Dragon Sports organise events where the children can turn up and spend the day being taught by professional players and obviously having fun. Regional and national competitions Throughout the country there are various leagues that I talked about previously in my work, these leagues area made up of various teams that compete for promotion to a higher, more competitive league. Regional competitions or matches, are held between more localised teams which compete to win matches in order to gain points and status within their league. If a team win a majority of their games within their own league and against localised opponents, of inter-county matches, they move on to play against the victors from other leagues in various other counties. Ultimately, the teams that are the best in each area of a country will move into a position where they have to play against each other in order to proceed to the next level. After all of the county matches have been played the victorious teams may be promoted into a larger more advanced league that caters for the best regional teams. Theses teams will then play against one another in a national league that offers bigger more prestigious rewards. The teams/clubs at this level are the cream of all the inter-county teams and all compete for national recognition. Doping control and testing. Over the years there have been numerous incidents where athletes have been tested for drugs and were found to have been abusing illegal, performance enhancing narcotics. It is now the norm for most athletes, including footballers, to be tested for doping and drugs that may affect their performance. There are many different ways in which drug testing can be performed, namely, urine samples, hair samples, perspiration and residues found on the athlete or on items of their possession. The urine sample involves the footballer giving a urine sample just before a game, which is tested for the existence of drugs or any evidence of doping. If the results come back positive then the footballer will be suspended and will not be allowed to play in the match or matches following the test until a governing body tells them they are allowed to play. Hair testing involves the footballer/athlete giving a sample of their hair, which, like the urine is tested for evidence of drugs, again, if the test shows that that person has drugs in their system, then appropriate action will be taken. The perspiration test involves the sweat of the athlete being analysed for the presence of any performance enhancing drugs. This is an effective way of doping control and testing, as there are not many ways in which you can avoid this sort of test, or any of the others for that matter. Residue testing involves the footballer giving an item of theirs to the drug analyst that may have residue from the footballers body on it, this could include a drinking flask, mug etc. that may have the persons saliva on it, or a towel that may have hair on it that could be analysed, i.e. anything that may have any residue on it that could be analysed in order to prove the existence of drugs or doping. Here is an example of how the FA intends to deal with the increase in drug abuse in football; The FA is conducting random drug testing of gifted footballers as young as nine years old. These unannounced spot-checks on 9-16 year olds is being carried out at 147 centres of excellence across England and Wales. However, what I find amazing is that each of these drug tests costs the FA à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½230, but I do think that it is necessary as the drug problems with youth football is escalating. Assessment of development and placement on the performance pyramid. There are five levels to the performance pyramid, these are: 1. Grass roots. Here, everyone is encouraged to take part in the sport and anyone can play it. At this level young children are the focal point as trying to get children involved and interested in a sport from a young age is essential if they are to develop into a potential professional player. This is the stage that many governing bodies and organisations are now becoming interested in in-order to develop players of the future. 2. The second stage is recreation. At this stage, players have developed an interest in the sport and are playing quite frequently. This is also the stage where the player will have developed their interest enough to join a club or team. 3. The third stage is sport. This stage involves the person playing at higher levels and their standards have risen to such a point that means that they have become competitive and driven to win. They will also be playing in some sort of league with aspirations of success. 4. If a football player reaches this level they have entered a stage of excellence. The player probably would have been selected for their talent as a player and will be provided with support so that they can train without much hassle etc. They would be sent to train at a centre of excellence where they will receive professional help from qualified coaches in order to play to the best of their ability. Furthermore, the player will probably be playing at county level with the best players in the area who were also selected for their talent. 5. The final level or stage is elitism. At this stage the player is playing at the highest level and has a desire for winning. Moreover, the chances are that the player is at a professional level and is getting paid to play for a particular team. This is the highest of levels that you can reach in any particular sport. Considering all of the stages I would place myself at stage three, sport. I play football at a competitive level and at quite a high standard. I would say that my interest for the sport has developed into one that I can play football at a level where I feel that winning is important but losing is an inevitable factor. With this in mind I can say that there is little chance of moving to the excellence stage and therefore the elitist stage, as I do have other interests and I do not see football as the only sport that I can play. I believe that I am at this level because I have been playing football since I was seven, and I have developed a love for the sport and can appreciate the effort that is put into playing for such a long period of time. Discussion of the effects on my progress. There are many ways in which I have been helped through my time playing football, there are also many ways in which without extra help, I would not have been able to progress. Without a football organisation such as the FA, there would be little order or organisation in the development of football, such as football clubs at grass root levels. I can also say that the funding that these organisations distribute to various clubs is essential for their survival and maintenance of most equipment and grounds etc. At grass roots level, there is emphasis placed on playing for the enjoyment of the sport, which puts little pressure on players. This way of thinking allows players of the future to develop a love of the sport and thus will tend, like myself, to carry on playing football into their teens and beyond, some will eventually develop their natural abilities to such an extent that they can play football professionally and at an elite level where they can live from the money they are paid by their team/club. From a young age I learnt to play by the rules from grass roots football during matches, I learnt how to control myself in various situations and developed a lot of skills. All of this would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible to do, without the help of governing bodies and organisations such as the FA and FIFA distributing funds and carrying out administrative procedures that ensured players, such as myself, the opportunity to play in a controlled manner in supervised games etc. During my time playing football at club level and at grass roots, I had to pay subscriptions, or â€Å"subs† that would be paid into the FA who would recycle the money and put it back into the various football clubs in the country. This money is used by the FA to fund training camps and centres of excellence throughout the country in order to develop the players of future teams and representatives of our country. Furthermore, without these governing bodies and organisations, lower level clubs, like those at grass root levels, would not be able to support themselves as well as with the assistance of such bodies. The transition from level to level throughout the life of a footballer relies not only on the willingness to pursue the sport, but on the dedication of the governing bodies and organisations to help young players and athletes move on with the most support that they need.