“People say grassroots football is free,” reflects Robbie Savage. “It’s not free.”
The question of how much it costs for a child to play football is all the more pressing after three national lockdowns. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of young players who might have dropped out of the game altogether in that period.
Savage’s new venture, The Savage Foundation, aims to bring them back onto the pitch, with free quality training sessions and with full kit provided.
The average fees for a grassroots club, Savage points out, are “about £200 a year”. “If you’ve got two or three kids in a family, it could be £600 a year. It’s a lot of money and then a lot of games get called off due to weather.”
Motivated by his own background playing for his dad’s local team, the former Premier League midfielder, who was himself spotted by Manchester United scout Hugh Roberts at a grassroots game, has started the initiative at Macclesfield, where he now works as director of football.
“When we opened up Macclesfield FC just before the first lockdown, there were 600 kids here,” Savage says. “They loved the experience, they embraced it, there were smiles, there was joy. It was just brilliant.
“Why should youngsters be deprived of playing in fantastic facilities, having a nice kit, being part of a community, if their parents can’t afford it?
“We’re also providing a pathway for boys and girls who have never played football, but if they become at a level where they can move to the next level of grassroots, we’ll fund the £200 a year to play in a local grassroots club. We’re not ripping grassroots football apart in the local community. We’re growing it.”
Macclesfield have offered 4G pitches to the foundation to prevent games being called off, while the Law Family Charitable Foundation are funding the associated costs.
‘There are plenty of academies’
And while youngsters who excel will be encouraged to join competitive leagues, the focus is not fuelling the academies of elite clubs.
“For me, this is not about producing the next David Beckham,” Savage insists. “It’s about giving kids an opportunity to build their self-esteem, build their confidence.
“In years to come, if one of them can come through the foundation and stops me in the street and says ‘you helped change my life’, that’d be amazing. I’m not interested in creating kids for academies.”
Over 200 young players have already applied to be part of the set-up, though others – who have “got used to being on their computers at home” – will inevitably have slipped through the net.
That is not the only reason a generation of footballers are being lost. For other families, the expense of sending even one child to a grassroots club is proving prohibitive.
“In my current U15 Macclesfield team, I’ve got kids in there who can’t afford the £23 a month that my team pay, and that got me thinking it’s going to be even harder for some kids and some parents after lockdown,” says Savage.
“People have lost their jobs, circumstances change, so I thought how on earth can I enable these kids? I’m a grassroots kid and my dad was my manager. I was the kid who helped my dad put the nets up… I would rather do this than watch a Premier League game.”
When non-elite football does return across the country, The Savage Foundation is aiming to become “the first step of free football”.
Training sessions can’t begin formally until the end of the current lockdown and Savage is imploring government ministers to prioritise getting children back into sport.
“It’s imperative for me, with the roadmap back, on 8 March if kids can go back to school, sport goes hand-in-hand.
“The Prime Minister has to think of the kids’ welfare and he has to align schools’ education with sport.”
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