Success and Failure

What an incredible week it’s been. Last Friday I attended the NAGC (National Association for Gifted Children) Award on behalf of Talented Young People and was honoured to pick up the award for ‘Most Supportive Individual’ which was presented by the Duchess of Gloucester at the Ironmongers hall a venue in which they have filmed scenes for the popular Harry Potter film franchise. On the flipside it has been one of the worst weeks for our national game here in England that being football or soccer depending on where you come from.

We here at Talented Young People aren’t doing what we are doing to win awards and it isn’t what drives our organisation but it is great to be recognised by such a brilliant well known organisation and to know that their staff, members, volunteers and children they help think we are doing a great job. As well as the awards the event provided a great chance to network with many professionals and volunteers within the NAGC and other organisations set up to help young people which we hope to work with in the near future.

The one thing that amazed me about the awards were the young people who were nominated for awards. The stories of the young people who were up for awards outshone any of the adults that were up for awards and that is the way it should be. Yes it’s great to recognise individuals and organisations that help young people but we are all here for the young people and it is them who we want to see rewarded and acknowledged.

In a week of great highs for Talented Young People it was low point for English Football and the FA as the England national football team failed to qualify for Euro 2008 our first time 1994 that we have failed to qualify for a major tournament.

With the premiership being one of the biggest if not the biggest football league in the world we need a national football team which reflects this. We need the world to know we are a great footballing country and that is only going to happen by getting the results. The better the national team does the more people that will be encouraged to give a football a try and the more money that will be pumped back in to our game.

The lack of a major tournament to attend will also not help the development of an exciting crop of players we have at Under 21 level as to develop in to full first team players they need to get experience at the top level. On top of this after all the money that has been spent on our home ground Wembley we now have no competitive football matches scheduled at home for some time. We now have a brilliant ground but a team which isn’t up to that standard. With the lack of competitive football at the venue it makes me wonder why we paid all that money for it in the first place as not even the re-opening of the venue spurred the country on to greater results.

England played such a big part in the world development of sport by being the founders and creators of many different sports and it is time we got the reputation back not of just being the home of the sport but actually being good at it as well. It’s time once again to be proud and be a great, Great Britain.

We here at Talented Young People want to know your thoughts about the English football setup and you can share your views by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=260

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com