CITATIONS
'Play is a vital ingredient of childhood. It's where children learn self-control, self-confidence and creative flair. It keeps them fit and teaches them how to get along with each other. Playing football -- just for fun -- has been the birthright of countless generations of kids. (And it's also kicked
off the career of every great international player.) But today,
like all other forms of loosely- supervised outdoor play, kids'
football is under threat. The NCFA deserves the support of everyone who cares about childhood -- and about the future of football in the UK.'
Sue Palmer
(author of 'Toxic Childhood' and '21st Century Boys)
‘Our lives and emotions are so heavily invested in our children, we all find it difficult to be practical’.
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Frank Furedi
Professor of Sociology at University of Kent
‘When children organize football it’s play. When adults organize children’s football it’s sports.’
Joan Almon
Director of the U.S Alliance for Childhood
‘NCFA is about development through football rather than simply development of football’.
Celia Brackenridge
Professor of Sports Sciences Brunel University
‘Clearly, for clubs to be successful in creating safe and positive environments for children and young people, it is crucial for them to find ways of overcoming the tensions created by varying parental motives and behaviours’.
Andy Pitchford
Child Welfare in Football
QUOTES
‘The NCFA has both the interests of children and the game at its heart. There is not any other organisation in my knowledge that can honestly make such a claim’.
Jim White (Author)
‘You’ll win nothing with kids’
‘There is no gender or race in children’s football only mixed ability and anyone who tells you different is an adult’.
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Ernie Brennan (Founder)
‘National Children's Football Alliance’
The Power of football to be an influential and dominant force for good in the daily lives of millions of children, and in society as a whole, is enormous.
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Rick Fenoglio
Sports Science Lecturer Manchester Metropolitan University
"The more organised it became..... the more the fun dried up."
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Paul Cooper
Give Us Back Our Game
"I wish that people would understand within the professional game that they are preying on the vulnerability of some very young minds."
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Chris Green (Journalist and Author)
‘Every Boy's Dream'
"We now have set up through our own insurance company victim support councilling for referees."
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Arthur Smith
Referees' Association
COMMENTS
"I witness managers telling them what they have done wrong.....
I don't think that is right."
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Mal Lee
Don't X The Line
"The last thing they need is pressure when they are doing something like football."
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Vanessa Wheeler
Primary School Teacher
"It's difficult for some to get an opinion or voice across. The adults are running the game."
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David Ramzan
Invicta Valiants
"He punched me with his car keys in his hand and split my eye open."
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Richard Lowe
Parent / Volunteer Coach
"He made all the boys go up and apologise to their parents for loosing."
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Kevin Toms
Parent / Ex-Children's Coach
"The look in his eye was total hatred."
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Richard Jones
Parent / Ex-Volunteer Coach
