A showpiece international schools match could be scrapped if it fails to attract enough spectators to Wembley Stadium on Saturday. It would end more than 50 years of tradition at the home of English football.
The English Schools’ FA (ESFA) is staging its annual end-of-season game when England Under-18 take on France Under-18. However, with only 8,000 tickets sold, it may make a loss of up to £60,000, a deficit that it can no longer sustain.
“It is scary and it is sad,” John Read, chief executive of the ESFA, said. “We just cannot afford to dig into the pot any farther. Unless we find a major sponsor, that will be it. It will be the end of an era.”
The match is the second to be held at Wembley since the venue was rebuilt, with England playing Scotland last year for the inaugural Bobby Moore Trophy. The history of the fixture, also involving the England Under-15 team, stretches back to 1950.
Yet the England-Scotland encounter attracted a crowd of only 20,000 - well below the break-even figure - and cost the ESFA almost £50,000. An association that spawned the likes of Michael Owen and Jermain Defoe is now facing another big hit.
Advertisement
Read blames the lack of interest on the stringent child protection guidelines that now exist within the education system. Teachers and youth-club leaders have been put off from putting on trips to Wembley because of the welter of paperwork.
“They’re not willing to do it any more,” Read said. “The risk assessment and legislation involved in taking a young person away from home is overwhelming. We’re talking about 20 to 30 pages of forms to fill in, dealing with from the minute a youngster leaves home to the minute he gets back.
“Yes, you could say it’s political correctness gone mad. It’s making millions of kids suffer for perhaps a few incidents in the past. It means we’re no longer selling in our traditional areas, the schools and the youth clubs. It’s not worth all the hassle for the teachers and leaders to give up their Saturdays to drive a minibus.”
The hire fee for Wembley, even with only small sections of the stadium open and at a discounted rate, is £300,000. “As an FA council member, I have got to look at both sides of the coin and I do,” Read said. “The banks are screaming at Wembley and they have to be realistic. I understand that.
“We had very good feedback from the match last year and we were hoping to get a crowd of maybe more than 20,000 this time. We felt we could at least break even. But as well as all the legislation, there’s also a recession on and, I suppose, people just haven’t got the money, either. This could be our last venture. It’s a great shame.”
Advertisement
** For England v France ticket information, ring 01785 785970 or go to www.esfa.co.uk