GOOD MORNING & WELCOME TO THE GRASSROOTS WEEKEND! ⚽❤️ The pitches are ready. The boots are on. The memories are waiting to be made. 📸 Send us your photos 🎥 Send us your videos 📣 Send us your shoutouts Whatever happens, enjoy every minute. Have a brilliant grassroots weekend! ⚽ #grassrootsisback

This season, if you see a referee wearing a yellow armband, they are a child. A young person brave enough to pick up a whistle, walk into the middle of a football pitch and make decisions in front of players, coaches and parents. They won't get every decision right. Neither will the players. Neither will the coaches. Neither will you. So when you see that yellow armband: Be patient. Encourage them. Protect them. Let them learn. Because that 15-year-old you support this weekend could become a referee for the next 30 years. The one who gets shouted at, abused or humiliated? They might put the whistle down on Sunday and never pick it up again. Please share this message. And this weekend, if you see the yellow armband, remember the child wearing it. 💛⚽

Hi Grassroots, I wasn't going to write this but I wanted to get it off my chest. It’s the last few days of the summer holidays. We’re trying to enjoy a bank holiday away and spend some much-needed time together as a family. But my husband—a volunteer grassroots coach—has just received a lengthy message from a parent saying their child has had a “better offer” and won’t be returning. The season starts in a few days. There had been no problem, no warning and no conversation. The only obvious difference is that the new team has the word “Academy” in its name. Now he has almost no time to find another player, reorganise the team or make sure the remaining children aren’t affected. He’s sitting here absolutely devastated when he should be relaxing with his family. Because to you, it might be one message and a move to another team. To him, it’s the child he has coached, encouraged and cared about. It’s the hours spent planning sessions, gaining qualifications, arranging fixtures, registering players, washing kit, maintaining pitches and making sure every child feels valued. It’s the evenings he has sacrificed, the weekends he has given up and the money he has quietly spent when the team needed something. Volunteer coaches don’t simply turn up for an hour. They carry their teams with them every day. They talk about the players at home. They worry about their confidence. They celebrate their progress. They give up precious family time because they genuinely care. Of course, children can move teams. But please remember there is a human being on the other end of that message—someone who has invested far more than you may ever realise. A conversation and a little notice cost nothing. Grassroots coaches give so much to our children. The very least we can give them in return is honesty, respect and a little consideration. ⚽️

Message from a newly retired Coach. After 17 years of Sunday mornings and midweek training, my time coaching grassroots football has come to an end. I still can't quite believe that this season I won't be putting nets up in the freezing cold or cones out in the pouring rain. I'm not even in a team WhatsApp group anymore. When we finished in May, I thought I'd enjoy the rest. But now the new season is getting closer, honestly, it feels like a part of me is missing. I started coaching in 2009, four years after my wife sadly passed away. I was bringing up two young children and football became a way of being closer to them. But looking back, it gave me something I desperately needed too — a football family around me. One team became three, and somehow 17 years disappeared. There have been brilliant times and heartbreaking ones. Wins, losses, laughter, tears and friendships I'll carry forever. Football feels different now. Players can move teams at the first sign of failure, searching for instant success. But one of the greatest things football can teach a child is that the best success is often the success you have to fight for. They need to lose sometimes. To be disappointed. To pick themselves back up and go again. Because after 17 years I've realised something: The most important things kids learn from grassroots football have very little to do with football. Friendship. Belonging. Resilience. Winning properly. Losing with dignity. Being there for your mates. So to every coach: remember it's kids' football. Give them time to develop. Make it fun. Teach them respect. But above everything else, enjoy it. Because one day, suddenly, you're not putting the nets up anymore. To every coach, parent, referee and volunteer — I salute you. The kids will forget most of the scores. They'll forget most of the trophies but they'll never forget how football made them feel. After 17 years, I don't think I will either.