Football in the UK is (almost) back – did it ever go away? – and the Football Association, supported by BT, is launching a Playmaker scheme aimed at signing up 100,000 grassroots volunteers to help out and make involvement in football more inclusive: for women, BAME groups and people with disabilities.
The campaign breaks during BT’s coverage of the Community Shield between Premiership winners Liverpool and FA Cup winners Arsenal at the weekend. Crowd-less presumably.
BT marketing communications director Pete Jeavons says: “At the heart of our partnership is the growth and development of grassroots football. Together with The FA, our goal is to create the most inclusive, accessible and skilled grassroots community in the world.
“The FA Playmaker course means you can come from any background, without an association with football previously, and make a difference to a sport that means so much to millions of people across the country. We’re encouraging as many people as possible to get involved.”
Let’s hope it works. Attending amateur football, including kids’ games with crazed parents, can actually be a deeply unpleasant experience as yobs and football, alas, seem everlasting (as Man United’s Harry Maguire found on his recent, interrupted holiday to Greece.)
MAA creative scale: short on fun but maybe that’s point: 6.5.
