Overcoming travel habits and preconceptions in grassroots football

Birmingham County FA (BCFA), is the Regional governing body for football in the West Midlands. It is a not-for-profit membership organisation with 1000 affiliated grassroots clubs.

In June 2021 they launched a pioneering and award-winning environmental initiative called ‘Save Today, Play Tomorrow’. The project is looking at the impact areas for grassroots football and where it can influence and affect change. 

Given the numbers of teams and players, travel was an area they knew had a high carbon footprint, with an estimated 12.6 million football related travel movements each season. The extent of this football travel also adds to the worrying levels of air pollution in and around Birmingham with 50% of football venues in areas where air quality exceeds WHO safe guidelines for PM2.5 matter. 

With the game forecast to grow over the coming years Birmingham County FA are committed to supporting clubs with more active & sustainable ways to travel to games to ensure the health & wellbeing of those involved is not compromised through poor air quality.

Project objectives 

As part of a research project funded by the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE), The Sustainable Sidekicks were commissioned on behalf of BCFA to conduct research on travel behaviours for clubs in central Birmingham. As well as to work with clubs to pilot some initiatives. This kind of project was a first within grassroots football and it was hoped that the findings and outcomes could shape wider initiatives across the network of regional governing bodies and possibly outside of football. 

Research findings – reasons for driving 

The Sustainable Sidekicks conducted telephone interviews with coaches and visited a football club to chat with parents. Focusing on parents travel habits for weekly training we learned that: 

Convenience–  Ease was a frequent remark. Cars and driving was cited as being much easier than other transport options

Time- Getting children fed, changed and to training after school and work was cited as a rush and so car travel was the quickest option 

Practicality– Carrying kit was a reason given for driving

Safety – Children’s safety was acknowledged as a reason parents many choose to drive

Research findings – lift sharing insights

When prompted further about lift sharing parents were also concerned that:

• They or other parents would be late 
• They would miss supporting their child if another parent drove
• They didn’t know other parents within the team well enough due to the relationships not being formed early on because of the  pandemic 

However, researchers also spoke to parents and youth teams who were lift sharing to training. These were people who:

• Lived close by – within 1 to 2 miles 
• Traveled with their children so they could watch and support 
• Knew each other from social events put on by coaches  

Pilotted actions with clubs

The next phase of the research was to actively engage with a couple of clubs that had multiple teams from junior through to adult.  Crusaders FC an inner-city club near Bournville and Sporting FC from Solihull were selected, and their coaches and  parents/supporters were invited to try informal lift sharing over a number of weeks to allow for data to be gathered.. Both clubs were incentivised to support the trial withthe offer of free footballs & training equipment from BCFA . Coaches played a pivotal role in communicating this to their teams by: 

• Connecting parents who live close together – coaches introduced parents who lived locally to each other 
• Starting dedicated WhatsApp groups to communicate about travel arrangements
• Organising social events so parents got to know each other
• Offering lifts to people who lived close to them 
• Encouraging parents to jump in the car as well – this overcame a desire to be pitchside and any child safety concerns
• Providing lifts for players and their parents 

 “Besides the obvious benefits to the environment, which are very important. When players and parents share lifts, they tend to be more likely to arrive on time and it gives everyone a good opportunity to do some team bonding. So I’m all for it.” Crusaders

Outcomes 

Three youth teams at Crusaders FC gave lift sharing a go, as well as the adult ladies, , sharing their stories and experiences on social media to encourage other parents and teams to give it a go. 

Through the lifts shared, we calculated that four teams avoided  687 miles a season equating to a £200 saving on fuel costs

One group of lift sharers revealed that ‘ With large families, personal and work commitments, Benita and other families realised that they couldn’t always get to training and matches. Now a group of four families, who live within two miles of each other share weekly. They organise by messages and share the lifts, knowing that each person is reliable.

The Sustainable Sidekicks created some simple guidance documents for BCFA to share with clubs so other coaches can ask parents to give it a try.  

LINK TO FLYER 

Findings and recommendations 

Lidftsharing works best if people live within a couple of miles, suggest people: 

• Find out who lives in close proximity or en-route

• Share lifts with other parents- this means parents can still watch training and removes concerns about child responsibility 

• Organise social events so parents get to know each other – as simple as having a cup of tea together!

• Just give it a try for a few weeks – You may be concerned that other parents, or you will be late. Most people who give it a go are surprised by how well it works.

•  Create a separate WhatsApp group for lift sharing It makes it easier for lifts to be arranged outside of all the other chats that carry on in your team WhatsApp.