SPECIAL FEATURE: Grassroots sport coping with a pandemic... youth football - Northampton FFA

It has been a tough 10 weeks or so for grassroots sporting clubs across the area, with all activities suspended as part of the battle to get on top of Covid-19.

Thousands of people, young and old, have been denied the chance to play cricket, football, tennis, rugby, bowls and many other sports, but there does seem to be light at the end of the tunnel as restrictions are carefully eased.

The main focus has unsurprisingly been on the major and professional sports getting back into action, behind closed doors, and in the UK the Premier League is set to resume in a couple of weeks, the Cobblers are on course to get back playing by the end of the month and Silverstone will stage two Formula One GPs in August.

But what about those grassroot sports clubs?

How has the pandemic and suspension of sport affected them over the past three months? How are they coping financially?

Today, the Chron publishes a series of online articles touching on how a selection of the area’s sporting clubs have dealt with the crisis, and their hopes, and fears, for the future.

Number eight... youth football - Northampton FFA FC

The suspension of sport due to Covid-19 and the restrictions imposed on its staggered return has been particularly hard on the world of youth football.

This time of the year would normally see football tournaments being staged across the town and county every weekend, while parks would be packed on Saturday and Sunday mornings with youth teams training with their pals and and enjoying themselves.

Literally 1,000s of boys and girls would be getting involved - but thanks to Covid-19, none of that is happening.

There were new directives issued this week that allow six youngsters to practice together, but there is still no contact allowed and that is unlikely to change while social distancing remains part of the Government fight against the virus. It means that it is football - but not as anybody knows it.

Delaney Fifield runs one of the town’s biggest youth football clubs in the shape of FFA.

The club runs a host of teams that play in the Northampton & District Youth Alliance, and he admits the coronavirus pandemic is a real challenge for his club, and every other one in the area.

“It is very quiet at the moment, and it’s the uncertainty that is the worst thing, because nobody knows what lies ahead,” said Fifield.

“Unless you have an end-game, then it is difficult to plan for anything.

“All we are really doing right now is going by Government guidelines.

“The announcement on June 1, that was the first thing we had heard for ages.

“I got an email from the league secretary, but it basically said what I had already seen on a newsfeed on my phone that day.

“And that is that team sports are allowed, but with no more than six people including the coach, and there is social distancing and to make sure you don’t share any equipment.

“It’s not ideal, and the bottom line for me is, as long as there is social distancing there is not going to be any football.

“Football needs to be competitive, you need to get close to other players, you need to tackle, it is a physical game. So if you are not allowed to do that, then you are not going to be able to play.

“All we can do is look at the information we have been given, and it looks to me like there won’t be any youth football until there is a vaccine.”

Finances are also a big issue, as it the summertime when clubs can utitlise public parks and train on them for free, and they can charge their players subs to bolster their funds for the whole year - to get some cash in the bank to pay for those expensive winter training sessions under floodlights on 4G surfaces.

“All you can say is, that as clubs we are all in the same boat,” said Fifield.

“I was being chased the other day by a winter venue, and they are saying to me ‘we need you to pay the money’. I told them we would have the money if we had the subs coming in, but we don’t at the moment.

“If you don’t get them in, then you can’t pay for things like winter venues, because you are planning for the whole year. We need to take subs for the whole year, to pay for everything.”