Grassroots football is 'dying' in Swindon warns referee

Mark Haines, who has over three decades' worth of experience and has been a referee secretary for the district for the last ten years, believes he is seeing the game 'die'. 

He cites the growing cost of pitch hire, poor quality pitches and unappealing and unsafe changing rooms as part of the reason why leagues are shrinking year-on-year. 

He also claims pitches are covered in dog poo, as well as used heroin needles. 

Referee Mark Haines believes local grassroots football in Swindon is on its last legs unless something is done (Image: Mark Haines)

As a result, he has started the campaign 'Save Grassroots Football Swindon', alongside local coach James Easton, and is hoping to put pressure on the local authorities managing these facilities to help keep the beautiful game going in the town. 

He said: "After 30 years of being a referee I have seen the game we love disappear, and this is because, in my opinion, of money and greed, however, if we continue down this path we will lose it entirely."

When Mark started refereeing, he says there were nine divisions playing on a Sunday, and three divisions playing on a Saturday, but this has now shrunk down to three on a Sunday and two on a Saturday.

He says that with fewer teams, fewer people are seeing the benefits to their mental health and getting exercise from playing, and fewer people are being brought together. 

"Why are our community pitches so expensive? Why are the local pitches maintained so poorly?

"In many areas, a pitch will cost somewhere between £75-£120 for ninety minutes, which is really expensive when it's every week. 

"On top of that, several pitches and changing rooms are terrible, we can't use Pembroke because the changing rooms there were condemned and have been shut for nearly seven years.

The changing rooms at Mannington Rec (Image: Dave Cox)

"We don't use the pitches at Swindon Academy anymore, because we've had issues down there and one time we found heroin needles on the pitch."

Other pitches he said weren't maintained well enough were Mannington, Sevenfields, and Penhill. 

Swindon Borough Council was responsible for many of these public pitches up until 2019, but now they are all either run by parish councils or private leisure companies. 

Central Swindon North Parish Council manages Sevenfields, Mannington and Southbrook and said the following in response

"The reason for the transfer of assets to us was because there had been historical underinvestment in the pitches and facilities which had left them in poor condition, as evidenced in the Borough Pitch Playing Strategy report 2016-2021," a spokesperson said.

"Since 2020, CSNPC has been working with both the Swindon Sunday League & Swindon & District League to deliver a schedule of pitch improvement works, which is done so in line with the Football Foundation pitch improvement program,"

The parish council spokesperson said they are required to report to the Football Foundation with evidence of the condition and standard of the pitches, and the improvements since 2020 have been acknowledged in reports. 

They added that tens of thousands of pounds worth of work have been carried out since it took over responsibility and that this year this made the decision to freeze pitch hire fees. 

Children playing football on Mannington Rec (Image: Dave Cox)

A Swindon Borough Council spokesperson said: “A few years ago, the Council passed over control of local playing fields to parish councils in order to ensure they got the care and attention they needed.

“While these parishes are now overseeing these locations, we do still provide funding and support where we can.

“This includes the new £3.6m Moredon Sporting Hub development on Moredon Playing Fields."

To get involved in Mark's campaign, contact him on markparishaines@gmail.com