The State of the Beautiful Game

It’s a cold Sunday morning, the wind ripples the shirts of 22 fired up footballers, and the referee’s whistle blows. What happens when the ‘the beautiful game,’ becomes a survival ground?

Sunday league football is very rarely publicised and when it is, the stories are brief. When a tackle becomes assault, should we take a closer look?

Charlie Knight, 21, was a victim of the leagues brutal nature when after just 20 minutes he saw his professional ambitions crushed. He described the moment: “I toe poked the ball to my teammate and this lad stamped on my standing right ankle, breaking the bone, he pushed off on it causing the lower and middle part of my leg to break under the pressure, I went straight into shock.”

With ringing in his ears and blurred vision Charlie’s new football boot had to be cut off along with his socks. His teammates confronted the opposing player who was known as ‘The Destroyer.’

Charlie continued: “I was obviously crying and gutted, I knew I was out for a long time. He didn’t even get a booking. My manager told me the same guy had injured my teammates cruciate ligament.”

“I was swearing at him over and over, I was shouting at him that I was going to kill him, I even got my boot and threw it at him.”

Charlie had been spotted by Conference Premier League side Salisbury and had been called up to the squad. He said: “I was told before the game that the first team manager of Salisbury wanted me to play for them and I was only 16, which would of made me the youngest in Salisbury’s history to play for them, that was hard to take.”

As he was rushed to hospital and taken for an X-Ray, Charlie wasn’t the only one who was devastated. He said: My dad couldn’t deal with it and left, that made it even harder to deal with.”

Two operations and five screws later Charlie’s dad told him how it was all paid for. His older brother was preparing to go to University but his parents had to use money they had saved up to pay for Charlie’s operations. He said: “Technically it was his money as it was the rent money he was paying my parents, that wasn’t nice to hear!”

To this day, Charlie wonders what could have been and struggles with a lot of injuries because of what happened. His drive for football has been damaged along with his motivation and confidence. He commented: “When I see Wade Elliot of Burnley for example, being a success from non league, I always wonder if that could have been me.”

With a rapid decline in many areas of Sunday League football, there are very few solutions being created. The ‘Respect the Ref,’ campaign was launched in 2008 when statistics revealed, that on average, 7,000 referee’s quit football every year. Debate is still being raised about whether or not it is working.

Not only referees are quitting the game. In the last four years 2,728 Sunday teams have dropped out of the league. Darren Parker of the Hampshire FA commented: “Often teams can’t get a team together every week, this makes it impossible for them to carry on in the league.”

Reasons behind the lack of players aren’t clear but injuries are considered to be one of them. After providing 100 players with a questionnaire, it was found that 34 of them had been injured by a bad challenge. Adding to this, the average time spent recovering was 3 to 4 months, half of the Sunday League football season.

Mike Sadler, 21, has been recovering for over a year. He said: “I won’t be back playing until August, by then it would have been just over 2 years since the injury.”

Mike had his cruciate knee ligament ruptured and bent from a tackle in a pre-season friendly. He said: “The guy came in at knee height, my leg was on the ball, I felt my leg bend and my knee just popped, I thought it was broken.”

“The referee didn’t take any action, not even a free kick was awarded, and he adjudged it to be 50/50.”

Ligament damage can take four times longer than bone to recover. Sports injury specialist Dr. James Calder commented: “With bone, its solid and is set when it heals, ligaments have to be reformed and take a lot more time to regain their strength.”

“Another part of ligament damage is the long term affect, often they never fully heal. Normally patients are given a percentage and it’s rarely 100 percent.”

Mike underwent surgery to reconstruct and stabalise his Anterior Cruciate Ligament. He said: “They took muscle from my thigh to strengthen the ligament, then pins were inserted to keep it stable.”

Currently managing his team, Mike is 9 months away from playing football again. Getting through the hardest physical part of his recovery, it’s becoming more psychological. He said: “Mentally, I will take a few more years to fully recover.”

“When I go in for a tackle I will be scared of what might happen, it will completely change the way I play.”

“Physically I’ve obviously been in a lot of pain but it’s mental as well. I get so frustrated having to watch and hear about people playing, but there’s nothing I can do.”

Whilst the views of players vary, referees at this level seem to maintain a similar opinion. Referee John Thompson said: “Look, were not playing at a professional level, I don’t make decisions that will ruin the game; it gets us refs a lot of abuse. You get more abuse for sending someone off, so it’s best to just let it go.”

However studies in France revealed that players cause 90 percent of physical and verbal abuse. A ruling was also passed in 2006 that made attacking a referee the equivalent to attacking a police officer. The same rules have not been made in the UK. There is violence in amateur football all over the world.
Due to the professional game overshadowing grass roots football, solutions made at the highest level don’t take effect in all standards of the game. In the Premiership, there have been many cases of players being sent off for a late, high-footed tackle. This is considered standard in Sunday League Football. This raises the question of why the same rules do not apply at every level.

There have already been 33 red cards and 602 yellow cards (an average of 26 per team) in the first quarter of the Premiership season. In amateur football the figures are very different. Debbie Sowton, Disciplinary Manager of the Hampshire FA said: “Each team averages 11 yellow cards and 1 red in the Sunday District League.”

These statistics raise the question of discipline in the league and show part of the reason why the game is so aggressive at this standard.

The hard-hitting challenges affect players in different ways. Whether it’s a long lay off, or a bruise the next day. It becomes hard for players to turn up and play every week.

The majority recover and go back to playing football. It isn’t the same though for all players with age playing a huge part.

With experience in the game it is still hard for players to adapt the changes in the game. John Turnbull, 38, said: “I’ve been playing on Sundays for over 20 years, but my experience doesn’t count for a lot now. I’ve had three serious injuries and my body just can’t take it anymore.”

“I’ve had concussion several times, a broken ankle and the last injury was torn ankle ligaments and cartilage, the same one I broke”

After surgery repaired the damage, John had a 7 seven-month wait before he was fit to play again. But when the time came, his ankle couldn’t cope. He said: “I did everything right in my recovery but you can’t prepare for football. The pain was too much; it felt weak, stiff and swelled up when I tried playing.”

After several attempts to recover, John finally retired. He said: “It was frustrating because the drive was still there, but it was out of my control. I would of played until I was 50 if I could. I’ve had a lot of injuries but it was by far the worse. At my age it makes it even harder to recover.”

“I want to be involved in football but it’s hard watching from the sidelines, you can’t get involved and change the game.”

With many older players in the league, their experience can help them deal with common problems. When a teenager stops playing boys football at the age of 16 they only have two options. They make the step up to men’s football for either a Saturday or Sunday team.

The standard of Saturday football is high. For less serious, or less talented players, Sunday football is the only option. The brutal nature of the league can cause players to quit the game at a young age.

The facts and figures do not bring enough attention to what is happening in Sunday League football. If this were not the case, more solutions would be created to solve many of the problems.

There are previous stories of assault and even murder at games. The main focus is understandably on professional football, where violent situations do not often occur. When they do they are immediately dealt with in a serious and effective way. For example, banning those involved as well as fines. Should this apply at all levels?

Sunday League football isn’t focused on. There is enough evidence to grab the attention of associations who can make a difference.

However with a lack of discipline, teams and referees dropping out, with few solutions provided. It’s hard to see the state of the game improving.