The British American Football community got a little bit bigger this weekend with the announcement that four more teams will potentially be joining the National League for the 2014 season.
Teams from Aberdeen, Leeds, Sandwell and Torbay satisfied the league's initial assessment to become associate teams, meaning that they are likely to become full members of the league next season.
As with most decisions made by BAFANL, the news has split opinions across Britball, particularly with many teams struggling to keep their heads above water. Aberdeen and Torbay have a unique market to target - both play over 60 miles from the nearest team - but Leeds and Sandwell are situated in already saturated markets (Yorkshire and the West Midlands), so it will be very interesting to see how they will conjure up new players and if they end up poaching players from other teams.
The debate that will follow the entry of these teams will likely be a microcosm of the grander issues around the sport's development in the UK. Adding more teams without getting more coaches qualified to BAFCA Level Two (Lead Coach) level is likely to mean that player education suffers, and will only serve to dilute an already disparate talent pool.
We really do wish the four new teams the best of luck for getting into the league in 2014, but the debate about how best to develop the National Leagues is likely to rumble on for much longer than that.
Teams from Aberdeen, Leeds, Sandwell and Torbay satisfied the league's initial assessment to become associate teams, meaning that they are likely to become full members of the league next season.
As with most decisions made by BAFANL, the news has split opinions across Britball, particularly with many teams struggling to keep their heads above water. Aberdeen and Torbay have a unique market to target - both play over 60 miles from the nearest team - but Leeds and Sandwell are situated in already saturated markets (Yorkshire and the West Midlands), so it will be very interesting to see how they will conjure up new players and if they end up poaching players from other teams.
The debate that will follow the entry of these teams will likely be a microcosm of the grander issues around the sport's development in the UK. Adding more teams without getting more coaches qualified to BAFCA Level Two (Lead Coach) level is likely to mean that player education suffers, and will only serve to dilute an already disparate talent pool.
We really do wish the four new teams the best of luck for getting into the league in 2014, but the debate about how best to develop the National Leagues is likely to rumble on for much longer than that.
More teams with 10 people at practice! instead of 1 team with 40 players at practice!
ReplyDeleteHaving a new Leeds team is stupid. Yorkshire Rams are already in Leeds... and Sheffield and Doncaster are only a short drive away both in Yorkshire as well. Who allowed this to happen?
ReplyDeleteThe onus is on BAFA to catch up on the demand. More qualified referees, more Level 2 coaches, more frequent Level 1 courses.
ReplyDeleteIf the family is growing surely the head of the family should start looking at getting a bigger house and bigger car to make sure there are no runts in the household.
Maybe BAFA should write up its business case to attract worthwhile sponsorship which will trickle down to all its members.
To say the West Midlands is saturated is a little bit of a stretch. There are of course teams in the Midlands, however Coventry, Leicester and Nottingham would be in the East Midlands with Staffordshire in Stoke (North Midlands, closer to Crewe than Birmingham). Shropshire are the far north of the West Mids. Birmingham are of course central but have the largest 'player pool' outside of London in the city alone. The southern part of the West Midlands including Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, Dudley, Sandwell and the Northern part of Worcestershire (Kidderminster etc) has no football whatsoever, hardly what you could call saturated.
ReplyDeleteWould be nice if Double Coverage contacted the teams concerned for their views. As for the anonymous comment above re ten players. As chairman of the Torbay Trojans i can assure that we are not in that position. Its not practical for people in south devon to travel to newquay or bournemouth to play, we've got 5 level one coaches and have secured sport england investment. We take the sport seriously and we take our commitment to our players seriously. I certainly would say that BAFA have not nodded us through on a whim.
ReplyDeleteAs a Shropshire player I can tell you "Anonymous" that we have players that travel from Dudley, B'Hill and Wolverhampton, I'm hoping non will leave for the new Sandwell team, although I wish the new team luck.
ReplyDeleteIt would be alot easier for me to play in Sandwell to be honest but Im loyal to my team.
I can see the point you ate making but it is all realative, from the areas you jave mentioned I can see many people having to travel more than 1hr to het to The Rev or The Bulls so in realtive term of Ametican Football in this country I agree with the article it is saturated!
Teams from Aberdeen, Leeds, Sandwell and Torbay satisfied the league's initial assessment to become associate teams, meaning that they are likely to become full members of the league next season.
ReplyDeleteGOOD FOR THEM THEN!
As with most decisions made by BAFANL, the news has split opinions across Britball, particularly with many teams struggling to keep their heads above water.
IRRELEVANT TOSH - THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED TO RECRUIT FROM ANY TEAM IN THE LEAGUE SO WHATS HAPPENING WITH OTHER TEAMS IS THEIR CONCERN NOT THE NEW TEAMS.
IF OTHER TEAMS INDIVIDUALLY ARE STRUGGLING IT IS THERI PROBLEM!
Aberdeen and Torbay have a unique market to target - both play over 60 miles from the nearest team WHICH MEANS YOU HAVE PREVIOUSLY CONTRADICTED YOURSELF - but Leeds and Sandwell are situated in already saturated markets (Yorkshire and the West Midlands), so it will be very interesting to see how they will conjure up new players and if they end up poaching players from other teams.
POACHING IS NOT ALLOWED - PLAYERS MOVE FROM TEAM TO TEAM BECAUSE OF STANDARDS AT CLUBS. JUST LIKE SOCCER - AND I WOULD HARDLY CALL YORKSHIRE OR THE MIDLANDS SATURATED
The debate that will follow the entry of these teams will likely be a microcosm of the grander issues around the sport's development in the UK. Adding more teams without getting more coaches qualified to BAFCA Level Two (Lead Coach) level is likely to mean that player education suffers, and will only serve to dilute an already disparate talent pool.
NEW TEAMS HAVE TO HAVE L2 COACHES IN PLACE ANYWAY AS PART OF THE ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP.
KNOW YOUR SUBJECT BEFORE YOU WRITE THIS RUBBISH!!
GOOD LUCK ALL TEAMS
Thanks for your comments Anonymous, but I'm not sure I quite get your points. I'll try and go through them one at a time;
DeleteGOOD FOR THEM THEN! - Yes it is. I'm glad you appreciate that a British American Football site is reporting on news on British American Football.
IRRELEVANT TOSH - THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED TO RECRUIT FROM ANY TEAM IN THE LEAGUE SO WHATS HAPPENING WITH OTHER TEAMS IS THEIR CONCERN NOT THE NEW TEAMS. IF OTHER TEAMS INDIVIDUALLY ARE STRUGGLING IT IS THERI PROBLEM! - Nowhere in that paragraph did we suggest that recruiting from other teams was happening. And of course it's a concern for other teams; if you owned a Fish and Chip shop for example, you'd be concerned if another opened across the road.
WHICH MEANS YOU HAVE PREVIOUSLY CONTRADICTED YOURSELF - Where?
POACHING IS NOT ALLOWED - PLAYERS MOVE FROM TEAM TO TEAM BECAUSE OF STANDARDS AT CLUBS. JUST LIKE SOCCER - AND I WOULD HARDLY CALL YORKSHIRE OR THE MIDLANDS SATURATED - You are being incredibly naive to believe that poaching doesn't happen. Re saturation; the West Midlands already has Birmingham, Tamworth and Coventry, and that's without taking Frenchie's point about Shropshire into account. Yorkshire has the Rams and Doncaster already, with a team starting in Hull and now this Bobcats team. That - in my opinion - is too many teams.
NEW TEAMS HAVE TO HAVE L2 COACHES IN PLACE ANYWAY AS PART OF THE ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP. - Did we say otherwise? This is more of a general point that there aren't enough L2 coaches in the country, never mind adding more teams for them to coach.
KNOW YOUR SUBJECT BEFORE YOU WRITE THIS RUBBISH!! - Thanks for your opinion, but I think most of our 5,000+ Facebook fans, 2,500 Twitter followers and several thousand daily readers would disagree with you on that point.
Thanks for your feedback
TS
As an aside, if you are just trolling, then well played...
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