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Pre match
This Ruff Guide is divided into a series of football-friendly sections. We Warm Up by considering the breadth and complexity of football development before looking at our view of Tactics – how we think you can make the most of the football resources on the internet and beyond. We then consider the Players to understand where football research has come from before entering the Pitch to get to grips with the resources we've identified for your consideration.
Warm up
Offside, onside, over the line, foul, no foul, handball, bung, no bung…the arguments and discussions about football appear endless. Our national sport is everywhere, it dominates our newspapers and television screens, it infuses our language, and it keeps some of us awake at night. It is a source of meaning and identity for huge numbers of people. Such is its apparent influence that many of those involved with sports organisations see football as the ideal medium for the development of individuals, groups and communities. Consequently, many agencies use football as an intervention device, hoping that the sport will foster togetherness, inclusion, equality, empowerment, reduced crime or improved health. At the same time, those organisations responsible for the sport in its various guises – professional and amateur clubs, the Football Association, the FA Premier League, educational institutions – are busy developing footballers to play the sport in competitive settings.
However, despite the enthusiasm which football generates, using the sport as a tool for development is actually a pretty complicated business. Hundreds of organisations are busy using football to meet their own ends, and unfortunately some of these ends can be contradictory. Professional clubs for example, in their quest to find and develop the next Wayne Rooney, may have very different values and priorities to community groups who are trying to use football as a relationship strategy with marginalised young people. Similarly, amateur clubs with a focus on performance may struggle to find common ground with organisations attempting to empower people with disabilities. These kinds of conflicts are common in the 'football family', and as a consequence football development is a hotly contested arena. There are fall outs, fights, squabbles and plenty of people who don't talk to each other any more. And that's just within the FA.
This isn't to say that some good doesn't come from the work of the organisations involved, and of course the same kinds of problems arise in all sports development settings. It's just that football is such a dominant part of our culture, and has such a long and complicated history, that it is important to understand the vested interests and micro politics of the sport before one can come to any genuine conclusions about its potential as an effective tool for social intervention or sports development.
Next..... Tactics - Football resources.....
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