Or is kids football and sports in tier 4 ridiculous?

[Puddingypops]

I think I’m going to get flamed by soccer mums but anyway...

My lad plays football and now we are told all under 18 football will continue, even while schools are closed and we are in tier 4??!

Do they not realise this is ridiculous? Regardless of other guidance I know kids whose families do not drive so will be getting lifts to training and matches, parents stood close together shouting their heads off during training and matches, kids coming into close contact and yet more excuses of, well they play football together so can go to each others houses blah blah blah.

This now puts me in the situation of allowing my son to play or being the bad guy, I’m ECV and feel under so much pressure!

I know plenty will tell me “think about the children” but it’s freezing anyway, my daughter cannot attend any of her dancing or drama groups but my son can go and train 3 times a week plus matches but can’t go to school???? WTAF!!!!

All out of schools activities including outdoor sport for under 18s should not open until children are back in school (4th Jan for primary except those specified high risk areas, 11thJan for exam years & 18th Jan for secondary.

I have kids who dance & sing and much as I want activities to return (& think they should) even I can see a difference between indoor and outdoor activities in Tier 4

This new strain is more contagious not more lethal, if you are vulnerable just stay away and dont send your kids to such camps. For DS it is his only source of joy. He hasnt seen his grandparents for nearly a year. It is a low risk for the vast majority of population

Tier 4 my sons rugby and polo classes are cancelled.

@Whattheactual20201 are you sure? This is new guidance issued with the last day!

Even if it is outside they are running about and breathing heavily right next to each other. They quite possibly come from lots of different school. Utterly ridiculous. Should not be allowed.

Hmm I dunno, it's a thin line really.
I play adults football and that's been put on hold and in a way I was relieved despite missing it terribly.
I never felt comfortable playing while cases were rising as there is so much contact with one another and equipment ie balls. But I know had one person got covid then all of us would have had to isolate.

I'd love to see if there's any data on stats for how many cases contracted as a direct result of playing/training.

[quote Puddingypops]@In1981 I WISH my lads team was like that. It’s not. No one cares, everyone gets lifts with each other the coaches are huddled with the kids, all parents spectate and shout and kids all piles back to each others houses because they are in a “bubble”.

I think my experience with it is plainly colouring my view and it seems it’s quite different in other places.[/quote]
Your team are clearly taking it very lightly. Ours are not. The kids whose parents don't drive haven't been attending away matches and nobody has been going to anybody's house since about October. We have to scan the app on arrival and sanitise the bloody goal posts. We have been told that if any team doesn't comply with the rules they can be reported by the other team and forfeit the match.

[quote Puddingypops]@In1981 I WISH my lads team was like that. It’s not. No one cares, everyone gets lifts with each other the coaches are huddled with the kids, all parents spectate and shout and kids all piles back to each others houses because they are in a “bubble”.

I think my experience with it is plainly colouring my view and it seems it’s quite different in other places.[/quote]
Please get in touch and ask fir their covid policy - it’s crap like this will have all our children’s sport cancelled where actually lots of clubs are managing the risk well.

Ours has - no spectating, no lifts, no shared equipment handled, hand sanitiser, more time spent doing socially distant drills.

@Puddingypops YADNBU, but everyone has a different opinion on this.

I am a club welfare officer at a tier 4 grassroots club. Our league has suspended all games indefinitely. We have 16 junior teams aged from U6 to U18 and we have taken the decision as a club to suspend training and not permit our teams to take part in friendlies for the time being. Other clubs in our county are doing the same.

It's nigh on impossible to ensure parents socially distance at training, and as a club we can't afford the fine if we are found in breach of the COVID regulations. We are concerned about access to medical help in the case of injury. We are concerned about players coming together for training from different schools and areas of the town. We are quite rural but the primary school had 3 year groups closed for parts of last term due to COVID and the secondary school were forever closing and re-opening.

As a club, our view is that it is our social responsibility to try to help keep infection numbers from rising further and to keep our children and their families safe. Our coaches are running zoom sessions for players to join in from home if they want to.

Times are really hard for grassroots clubs at the moment, we are on our knees financially but thankfully we have players and parents who are extremely supportive of our decision to stop all football activities for the time being.

@Puddingypops I'm also a football mum and my husband is a coach both at the grassroots club and the county FA and he agrees that temporarily suspending all games/training/friendlies is the right thing to do.

Of all the activities, you would think swimming lessons (where they are learning something considered essential by many for safety) would be allowed to continue. But pools are closed.

An outdoor activity for kids in small groups during school closures should count as essential too IMO... Adults are allowed social contact outdoors 1-1. But children too young to go out alone can't.

Scout Association has suspended face to face in T4 areas. (Unless there's been an update today). That's non contact.

“ Subject to any local tiers of restriction, out-of-school settings and wraparound childcare should continue to operate for face-to-face provision between 4 and 18 January 2021 for children who eligible to attend school for full-time on-site provision. This includes children who are:3

in early years settings

in primary school (however, if the primary school is one of the small number that has been asked to restrict access to children of critical workers and vulnerable children at the start of this term, then only those cohorts should attend out-of-school settings and wraparound childcare)

in the secondary school-age cohorts eligible for full-time on-site provision - vulnerable children, and children of critical workers

in exam year groups (primarily pupils in year 11 and 13) (from week commencing 11 January)

Pupils who are not eligible for on-site education provision in January 2021 should not attend:

out-of-school settings (such as extracurricular clubs or supplementary schools)

wraparound childcare (before and after-school clubs)

Providers of out-of-school activities that continue to operate for face-to-face provision during this period should ensure that they make parents aware that their setting should only be accessed if their child is in one of the eligible groups outlined.

We're desperate for it to continue...

My main worry is an accident - and having to go to A and E.

Being active outdoors is massively important - and the stats don't suggest that this is where Covid is being transmitted. (Mind you, we don't have great stats because the track and trace system is so shoddy but that's not our fault.)

DC's school - in their wisdom - decided to do sports in the sports hall rather than outdoors last term and planned to do the same this term. Now that strikes me as particularly stupid.

DS team have chosen to stop training as his team (& coaches) are split across tiers 3 & 4. Matches due to start at the end of the month, but again unlikely if travel restrictions continue - although other teams involved are continuing to train as they all seem to fall in the same tier area.

Youth football has continued in Scotland all winter but we've had much tougher restrictions than England overall, no household mixing indoors for 3 months now. I'm happy for the football to continue, it's keeping mine sane. No spectators allowed here though and they're very strict about it. Our figures are nowhere near as bad as the south of England though. Going by the figures we should be in tier 2 but the whole country in is tier 4.
I'm quite relaxed about covid though as I've been working out of the home in close proximity to colleagues and clients throughout the pandemic. No idea how I haven't caught it yet .

Kids sport should be going ahead.

I Cant see an issue when the UK still allows every tom, dick and harry fly in from every corner of the world. Kids need it, mentally and physically.

I’m with you op - I think playing matches is incredibly irresponsible and a bad example to be setting to the youngsters involved.

If they just did the socially distanced training like they did when they started back after lockdown originally then I would grudgingly allow ds to go but review it every week. But matches with people that are from a completely different town shows the FA are selfish and not thinking about the greater good of their players, their families and the population as a whole.

I know that some kids’ mental health is suffering but training safely with their team could help with that - matches with others from different areas is going to cause many of them more angst and potentially even more guilt if they catch covid and pass it on, particularly with this new strain that youngsters are more vulnerable to.

I am so grateful my daughter's riding stable is still open and she can ride. At least some normal human contact with her piers (from a distance on a horse) and at least she gets to do some sport in the fresh air. Otherwise she would just be sat at home on her ipad 24/7.

@Helmetbymidnight

"We're desperate for it to continue...

My main worry is an accident - and having to go to A and E."

Yes I agree. My daughter had a really bad fall on her back from a horse last time she rode (never happened before that she injured herself - thank God) and I was so scared we would have to go to A&E. Thankfully a few days at home and it seems to have healed.

We’re tier 3. Toddler’s football is still going ahead and that’s indoors. I’m not worried in the slightest, he’s 2 with no health conditions. More risk getting in the car to go to football.

YANBU. We're also tier 4 with primary schools closed, and I'm hoping that DS's football stays closed for now.

With our club parents have been told we have to watch training and matches in case the children need their shoelaces to be tied or need to go to the toilet. Training is an hour, with lots of parents standing around way too close chatting, and younger and older siblings mixing too. My DS's team have only 10 players, but they go to 5 different schools.

Matches are worse, as this is at least 1.5 hours watching and lots of parents standing too close. With all parents from both teams having to stand on only one side of the pitch, distancing is very difficult. Even more ridiculous is that at most matches, the venue check in code for people to scan is a laminated piece of paper that needs to be handed around from one group of team parents to the next. 🤦‍♀️

Tough one because the benefits are so immense.

But people are very much in denial about how covid spreads if they think contact team sports aren't high-risk environments. The number of people involved, the huddling, the sweating, the heavy breathing. Being outside isn't a magical virus protection thing.

I didn’t say all sport should be cancelled: just contact sports between children not currently attending school together. Whilst things are so bad that school is shut, that means no contact sports. When they reopen, crossing school bubbles for a minority of children to do sport is more unwise.

It’s rubbish, and children within school bubbles should be encouraged to do football etc together, but we need to minimise mixing across bubbles to get cases down, and staying down so that schools can open.

Even if it is outside they are running about and breathing heavily right next to each other. They quite possibly come from lots of different school. Utterly ridiculous. Should not be allowed.

And yet my son's team have been back playing/training since August and not a single case amongst them, nor have there been any in his class, high school with 1000 pupils, also back since August here. Restrictions need to reflect cases in the area. People in low case areas shouldn't be under the same restrictions as those with very high cases.

@Huugi surely they do reflect the different tiers, I’m specifically talking about tier 4.

Also the fact there hasn’t been a single case in the football team or your sons class is not the point. The point would be if there was a case of the new variant would it be spread to the team and therefore home to parents, siblings, into multiple classrooms, grandparents and therefore causing avoidable deaths?