Up until the age of 14 ... massive. In our league alone, just 1 of 3 Sheffield junior leagues I think, there are over 13,000 kids playing up to the age of 16, and that number increases year on year by 1000 or so. From the age of 14 you start to see drop out as kids lose interest, take up other sports, become "typical" teenagers and sit on the xbox all day. Given those numbers there are only 1 UEFA A coach per 1000 kids, just in our league. Most UEFA A & B coaches don't work at grass roots either, they are employed by academies.

Here's a little teaser to give you a clue about the subject for Part 2 ... https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/why-these-sheffield-playing-fields-have-been-lost-to-housing-1-9078751

What do you think? Is it a lack of coaches to help at the very lowest levels of football that keeps England from doing well at tournaments?

Where does she play? Wingback? CDM? 'keeper?

Oh, and I forgot to add to that list of team expenses some of my personal expenses. I currently have more FA Coaching qualificatins than I do for my day job. It's virtually mandatory for most teams to have at least 1 FA level 1 Coach and because of that most clubs will fund a coaches level 1. If your club wants to become Charter Standard Development or Community club then you also need level 2 coaches and the club should really fund those too. Our club is just aiming for Charter Standard however so we don't need level 2 coaches ... which means so far I've had to fund my own training. I'd say I've probably spent about £500 overall. Being a consultant however means if the course is during the week, I can't invoice clients. The courses have cost me thousands in lost revenue that way. I try to look out for bursaries or discounts on courses, and go on any of the free ones I can find. So far I have funded the FA Youth level 1 & 2 and a Futsal level 1 course myself. As well as annual membership of the local coaches association who put on the CPD events mentioned every month. The courses, while expensive for an individual, are cheap compared to industry training, however I wouldn't usually have to pay for industry training myself. So overall I'd say they are excellent value for money, especially the Youth Awards, some of the best training I've had full stop. It really makes you think and really opens your eyes. I might cover it in a future article.

Obviously, each league & club has a different tariff, but it is a requirement that leagues have to publish a list of fines. There's a league in Bolton that doesn't have fines, but they still have to publish their tariff with everything as 0. That's just a small indication of how backward the FA & county FAs are. Our team charges £20 a month per child, but that includes everything from training to match day kit & winter coats as well as. I don't know an exact figure for pitch hire, but it's in the region of £2500 per season, but I know of other teams that pay an awful lot more than that. Some pay 4 or 5 times that amount. We have a great deal when it comes to pitch hire, but it's still our biggest expense. Our midweek training is included with out pitch hire, but 3G facilities round here (South Yorkshire) cost anywhere from £45 for a quarter of a pitch per hour. The ref is £20 per game which we pay for with a raffle during the game. Cautions I believe are £5 for a yellow card, £30 for a red. We've never had either so I don't know off the top of my head. You do need insurance, again I don't know an exact figure but it's hundreds of pounds per team. balls, cones and other sundry training kit etc is a hard one to estimate, but a price list I put together a couple of seasons ago to refresh our training equipment came to £400 for essentials like Training Balls, Ball bag, Cones, Match Balls, Non-slip discs, Match Day Bag, Bibs, Pump. We're a single team club at the moment but economies of scale work the opposite way round with grassroots football, the more teams you have, the more expensive it gets.

It wouldn't be the first time Stuart & I have been mixed up :-)

You are of course right that the cause of the problem is government cut backs, and I do agree that a certain amount of health and fitness provision needs to come from the government but to restrict that funding to just football would be a mistake. The government should provide for a basic level of football, rugby, hockey, netball, etc in all schools, but I think the majority of funding for football specifically should come from the sport itself. Hopefully some of my future columns will expand on that and will explain why I think it would be unfair for tax payers to foot all of the bill.

I've gone full Time Team & overlayed the map from Roving Mick's post over a modern map of the area ...

Over the years Rovers have played at 5 grounds, including Ewood. Assuming no-one needs to be shown where Ewood was, where were the remaining 4 grounds? Oozehead Ground, described by Wikipedia as: "on Preston New Road to the north west of the town. This field was farmland and was owned by a local farmer, when Blackburn Rovers weren't using the field it was used to graze cows. In the centre of the field was a large watering hole, which on match days was covered with timber and turf" In 1877 they moved to Pleasington Cricket Club, is this where Pleasington Playing Fields are now? When a Preston North End player died during a match at Pleasington Rovers moved again to Alexandra Meadows, where East Lancs CC still play. Next was Leamington Road, 1881 - 1890. The road is easy to find on the map, but looking at it it's not obvious where the ground might have been. It's a very steep road from Revidge down to Preston New Road and it's not obvious if the houses pre-date the ground. So, where was the Oozehead Ground, did Pleasington Cricket Club play on what is now Pleasington Playing Fields and where on Leamington Road could you fit a football pitch?