Non-league Football

Graham P Jones Excerpts

Thursday 4th September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Graham Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)]

Like many other Members, I am saddened by the struggles faced by non-league football. I am particularly saddened by the loss of Great Harwood Town FC, which no longer exists. That is symptomatic of the troubles faced by many non-league football clubs and of the decline in participation. There is a challenge. Although most of today’s debate has focused on the semi-professional level, I would like to make three quick points about the challenges faced by grass-roots football.

First, there is a huge challenge to increase the level of participation. When I played, my local combination had four divisions, but now it has two. Participation is severely hampered by the number of people who are attracted to premier league football or other forms of entertainment. Those clubs are essentially the feeders for the semi-professional clubs that are picked for Sunday leagues and out of the combination. If non-league football at the semi-professional level is to survive and thrive, the tier below is just as important.

Secondly, I think that participation is about health, community and all the other aspects that Members have mentioned, which is why we should be encouraging people to get involved. There is a big challenge facing senior football at the grass-roots level. The amount of senior football played is threadbare. In constituencies like mine, it is really important that people engage in some form of recreational activity, and football is a great participatory sport. I think that people should be more involved, particularly those who are getting on in years and might think that they are past their prime. There should still be a game out there for them, but sadly there often is not.

Thirdly, I want to mention the state of recreation grounds. We need to look at how grass-roots football is funded, right down at a basic level. With the demise of teams and the reduction in the number of players, some of our recreation grounds are becoming tired and unused, and they need investment. I believe that there are many people out there who would respond to that need and who would like to see clubs thrive. Whinney Hill football club has taken over a recreation ground and it now has several teams, including junior teams and female teams. It has invested in the recreation ground, partly through public funding and grants and partly through its own initiative. That club and that recreation ground are thriving. We should look at that model and put more investment into our recreation grounds, rather than letting them wither away as unused pieces of land that are not particularly attractive.