Dear Grassroots……When did I become an employee of the parents??

We received an email from a grassroots football coach at the end of his tether, telling us he was quitting and the reasons behind it.

I would like you to make this email public so hopefully someone somewhere may learn from what I’m saying and stop with immediate effect treating grassroots coaches like employees.

I will start by saying I love the game and I love coaching with all my heart. I have coached grassroots football for 6 years now and on average devote about 10-15 hours per week. On top of this I also have a full-time job and a family with all the usual commitments, like everyone else involved in youth football.

I will also add that most people who give up 10-15 hours per week of their time for charitable or community football work are well regarded and, at the very least, thanked for their efforts.

When I first started 6 years ago with a bunch of 5-year-olds, their parents had no expectations of grandeur and were simply happy to watch their children play grassroots football.

I can’t tell you when or why this changed, but instead of the nice texts like:

“Really appreciate that little talk you had with X, he’s buzzing about what you said.”

“Thanks so much for taking little X and bringing him home, I would have been really stuck.”

I now feel like I’m being treated like an employee of the parents, with virtually every text or conversation being:

A complaint

A request to do something or buy something

A problem

My training needs improving

The facilities we use aren’t good enough

The way we play isn’t good enough

Referees at the league aren’t good enough

The league isn’t run well enough

Other teams have better strips, tracksuits, balls etc.

Before I go any further, the subs are £15 per month. I want to know at what point I turned into an employee of grassroots football parents!!

I started this as a fun hobby to give something back to youth football and to be a role model for my son to look up to.

I can honestly say now that I dread games and dread training, as there’s always an issue no matter how tiny — and it has slowly but surely worn me down.

Please, if you are a parent reading this, just give your grassroots football coach a little bit of credit for spending his or her time with your child. Don’t criticise everything they say or do. Of course they will make mistakes, because they are just Level 1 coaches trying to do a little coaching with kids in community football. Every once in a while, even give them a pat on the back and say “cheers”, as it means more than you will ever imagine.

It is with a heavy heart that I will be walking away from grassroots football, as this volunteer grassroots coach has had enough.

Yours in sport,
Anon