Post by ontheup on Jan 31, 2014 11:25:21 GMT
In all the furore of the "Vote" this week it almost passed me by that the other type of "Football" are due to host their main event this Sunday evening, in 2014 not 2054.
The passion of 3G has been running through my veins this week and I thought it was about time I turned by attention to something else, I've struggled to find a truly valid, non romantic, argument against 3G and failed, I'd even pointed out to the Dover fans that the Superbowl was being played on 3G, to which the obvious comments of "that's why they wear armour" and "90% of their other games are played on grass"
The 3G candle had almost burnt out and then it dawned on me, 90% of their games are played on grass.....but their showpiece occasion is to be played on 3G
Now far be it from me to suggest the Americans, are a hugely successful sporting nation, I'm not going to insinuate they are forthright and forward thinking when it comes to their sport, you'll never hear me suggest they are in the slightest bit competitive, outside of sport nobody could ever accuse them of being a global super power, now who was that country who put a man on the moon?
Regardless of personal opinion relating to Uncle Sam, an estimated 110m people will be watching the game on Sunday.
To put that into perspective, that is more than the entire population of England and Spain put together,
Arghh...England and Spain (I thought)......this year, the beautiful game (invented by England) take's itself off to Brazil for it's very own festival of football for arguably the greatest prize in world sport........who is your money on?....What do you look at when placing bets?.....form,pedigree,conditions, population.....a whole host of information when trying to make an informed decision.
I know who I'd put my money on, but if England win the World Cup this summer, the way football is run in this country will be applauded and nobody will think any change is required.
Now I wouldn't want to kick a hornets nest but if England don't win the World Cup then there will be this huge demand for "grass roots" football to be looked at.
How good would it be if someone involved with Maidstone United wrote to the chairman of the FA and pointed out what he perceived to be the problem with "grass roots" football in this country, wouldn't it be good if we could somehow get a picture of our local MP standing on our 3G pitch holding aloft a Maidstone United scarf, even better if we could get the sports minister to do it as well......even better if we could get that photo prior to a match against a Conference side, someone like Boreham Wood perhaps.
How embarrassing if the investigation into English Football following the national teams latest failure identified one of the answers has been sat on the desk at FA HQ since September 2013, or right under the nose of the Minister for Sport, I look forward to Mr Cameron promising the nation it will be looked at.
I know, let's find a successful nation and try and replicate their set up, how about Spain for example?....smaller population, larger area......suggesting they have better pitches because of the space available with less people playing on them......so with more people playing on less pitches in England, quality of pitch is certainly an area to look at.
Spain use those 3G type pitches, they are widely accepted across Spain (and other successful nations) but who wants to play football like the World and European Champions? The sterile football on offer from the two top clubs in Europe is not something we want in this country......
What about the injuries?......what about them?....they use armour in American Football???.......but I thought the concern was ACL injuries, not sure the armour would protect those players valued at millions of $$$ from ACL injuries !
The truth is, no matter what angle you look at it from, English football is screaming out for artificial pitches, and has more justification (climate, population, demand, falling behind in technical ability) to have them than a lot of other countries in Europe.......but lets focus on the reasons not to have them.
The passion of 3G has been running through my veins this week and I thought it was about time I turned by attention to something else, I've struggled to find a truly valid, non romantic, argument against 3G and failed, I'd even pointed out to the Dover fans that the Superbowl was being played on 3G, to which the obvious comments of "that's why they wear armour" and "90% of their other games are played on grass"
The 3G candle had almost burnt out and then it dawned on me, 90% of their games are played on grass.....but their showpiece occasion is to be played on 3G
Now far be it from me to suggest the Americans, are a hugely successful sporting nation, I'm not going to insinuate they are forthright and forward thinking when it comes to their sport, you'll never hear me suggest they are in the slightest bit competitive, outside of sport nobody could ever accuse them of being a global super power, now who was that country who put a man on the moon?
Regardless of personal opinion relating to Uncle Sam, an estimated 110m people will be watching the game on Sunday.
To put that into perspective, that is more than the entire population of England and Spain put together,
Arghh...England and Spain (I thought)......this year, the beautiful game (invented by England) take's itself off to Brazil for it's very own festival of football for arguably the greatest prize in world sport........who is your money on?....What do you look at when placing bets?.....form,pedigree,conditions, population.....a whole host of information when trying to make an informed decision.
I know who I'd put my money on, but if England win the World Cup this summer, the way football is run in this country will be applauded and nobody will think any change is required.
Now I wouldn't want to kick a hornets nest but if England don't win the World Cup then there will be this huge demand for "grass roots" football to be looked at.
How good would it be if someone involved with Maidstone United wrote to the chairman of the FA and pointed out what he perceived to be the problem with "grass roots" football in this country, wouldn't it be good if we could somehow get a picture of our local MP standing on our 3G pitch holding aloft a Maidstone United scarf, even better if we could get the sports minister to do it as well......even better if we could get that photo prior to a match against a Conference side, someone like Boreham Wood perhaps.
How embarrassing if the investigation into English Football following the national teams latest failure identified one of the answers has been sat on the desk at FA HQ since September 2013, or right under the nose of the Minister for Sport, I look forward to Mr Cameron promising the nation it will be looked at.
I know, let's find a successful nation and try and replicate their set up, how about Spain for example?....smaller population, larger area......suggesting they have better pitches because of the space available with less people playing on them......so with more people playing on less pitches in England, quality of pitch is certainly an area to look at.
Spain use those 3G type pitches, they are widely accepted across Spain (and other successful nations) but who wants to play football like the World and European Champions? The sterile football on offer from the two top clubs in Europe is not something we want in this country......
What about the injuries?......what about them?....they use armour in American Football???.......but I thought the concern was ACL injuries, not sure the armour would protect those players valued at millions of $$$ from ACL injuries !
The truth is, no matter what angle you look at it from, English football is screaming out for artificial pitches, and has more justification (climate, population, demand, falling behind in technical ability) to have them than a lot of other countries in Europe.......but lets focus on the reasons not to have them.
