The past 12 months have been very difficult for all of us and I hope that the return of grassroots football is something you are looking forward to as we start to emerge from lockdown and back towards a more normal way of life.

There are two very important updates for you.

Historic abuse of youngster in football

Last week an independent report (The Sheldon review) into the past failings of the FA to protect minors from different forms of abuse was published. This covered the period from 1970 to 2005 and found the FA had failed in its duty of care to youngsters in many areas of football.

The report was accompanied by a BBC Documentary called ‘Footballs Darkest Secrets’, which for any parent is incredibly upsetting viewing.

Any parent would and should question the safety of welfare of their children in modern grassroots football and I wanted to address any concerns you may have.

The report concluded that the FA had failed to protect minors across the period outlined above, however it is reassuring that since 2005, a number of initiatives have been introduced that focus on safety, protect and wellbeing of all youngsters in football. Indeed the Sheldon report concludes that the FAs work towards safeguarding has been impressive since 2005.

That does not mean we should stop learning and improving and I very much hope that an outcome of these events is that renewed focus and continual development around safeguarding becomes the normal.

I did want to reassure you that Amaranth Crossgates already implements all of the current safeguarding initiatives;

All coaches and volunteers are DBS checked. This means that a check is done against an individuals past to ensure there is no evidence of past issues that might prevent them working with children.
DBS checks are renewed every three years.
All teams have a minimum of an FA level 1 coach and all coaches must complete the ‘FA Safeguarding Children’ module.
Both Amaranth, and West Riding County FA have Child Welfare Officers who you can contact with any concerns.

In addition to the measures outlined above, we have adopted best practice in terms of practical measures we can introduce at Amaranth;

Changing rooms are not used by Junior Teams. We issue kits to allow children to arrive at the ground correctly dressed. If changing rooms are utilised for special occasions such as important games) this would always be for a junior team with two adults and to be used as a briefing room only.
Showers are banned at the club for junior players.
We discourage any situation where children are left alone with a single adult coach. For example, giving lifts to games. If this is unavoidable, the child should sit in the back of the car.
Coaches and officials should not be communicating with junior players directly. We discourage the use of communication methods such as WhatsApp and Facebook which has a host of private and encrypted messaging systems. Our preferred method of contact is HEJA which is a transparent application that can be monitored.

Child Welfare goes beyond the abuse outlined in the Sheldon report. There are many different forms of abuse; verbal, physical and sexual and we all have a role to play to be vigilant for any of these. Whilst Amaranth has a responsibility, we are not solely responsible. It is for all of us, players, parents, spectators, coaches and club officials to play our part and report anything you are not comfortable with. Every report is logged with West Riding County FA to ensure independence and impartiality, and you can also contact them directly if you prefer.

At the end of this statement I have provided more links and information and you are welcome to contact me with any questions comments or concerns that you have.

Email me

Finally, on this subject, I give you my personal assurance that any concerns that you raise will be treated in confidence and will be taken seriously. A major theme of the Sheldon report is that multiple opportunities to stop what was happening were missed or ignored. That will not happen at Amaranth and the day I feel I cannot give you that assurance, will be the day I step down as Chairman.

COVID and Grassroots

We are just about to return to grassroots football after many months away. I know the coaches are excited to be getting back and the club is prepared and ready for your return.

When we do come back, we are still following Government and FA guidelines. A further link is provided below with the full range of restrictions we face however I wanted to highlight several that will affect you directly;

Grassroots will return on 29th March 2021. We will be using our grounds for training as we feel this is safer and provides us with more control than public parks.

FA Guidelines restrict any spectator until at least 12th April 2021. Whilst football is a social sport, for the next few weeks we must insist that parents do not spectate, friends and family do not attend, injured players do not come up to watch. Our pitches should have players and coaches ONLY.
One parent is permitted to remain with a junior players. Where possible, they should remain in their vehicle but if they need to stretch their legs, please do not stand pitch side and spectate as you would normally, unless there are specific welfare issues which should be discussed and agreed with the coaches in advance.
Hospitality is not allowed. We will open the toilets which should have a maximum of two people in at a time. Face masks MUST be worn in the clubhouse by all adults, unless you are medically exempt from doing so.
Players should arrive changed and ready, not congregate before, during or after the sessions and leave promptly.
The 2 meter rule should apply to all except those participating in games.

There are a range of measures the coaches will be applying should as additional sanitisation of the equipment.

These steps are necessary to enable grassroots to return. Given we have the Easter weekend coming up, this will only affect one or two games before the rules are relaxed further but please ensure you adhere to the guidance given. We will not hesitate to ask anyone to leave the ground who is not complying with these instructions.

NOTE: If you are leaving a junior player for a session and returning at the end, please ensure the coach is aware and has you most up to date contact details.

The Senior Committee has decided that we will not collect any more subscriptions for the remainder of the season. If you owed monies before we suspended subs in January, these are still due but we will not collect any further subscriptions.

We appreciate that everyone has been affected by COVID and we have not played much football. Although this will cost the club over the course of the season, we feel this is the right thing to do.

You do not need to take any action as we simply will not trigger any Direct Debit requests but these can be left in place for next season.

For teams that ‘pay as you play’ including Soccer School, these arrangements do not apply.

Finally, a small personal request. We work hard to maintain our relationship with the farmer who’s lane we use to access the club. COVID has seen an increase in traffic due to restrictions on car sharing and the new arrangements is likely to see an increased number of cars coming and going from the club.

Please can you make sure you drive VERY SLOWLY through the farm (max. 10mph) as driving faster is what rips the road up. Please also be patient when coming and going as there is going to be an increase in teams arriving and leaving at the same time in the coming months.

I am looking forward to welcoming you all back to Amaranth in the coming weeks and getting back to football.

Richard Baggott
Chairman
Amaranth Crossgates FC

Sheldon Report
FA response to Sheldon Report
Amaranth Safeguarding
West Riding Safeguarding
Return to Grassroots Football with COVID