FOCUS ON SCHOOL SPORT Getting a taste for the real thing
Steve Tongue enjoys a fun day at the Coca-Cola roadshow
IN ONE corner of the marquee, children of all ages - and both sexes - are attempting to chip balls over a cardboard cut-out goalkeeper and into the net. In another, they flop forward on to an upholstered mat, practising diving headers. There are Panini stickers, Sega video games and Umbro fashion shows, and a machine programmed to fire shots of varying pace at goalkeepers, that any professional club in the country would find useful.
The young football fans present must think they are in heaven, rather than Roundhay Park, Leeds, the latest stopping off point for Coca-Cola's Football Crazy Roadshow.
The good news for any parents in Manchester, Cardiff or London running out of ideas for this most draining of school holidays is that those cities are on the itinerary for the next three weekends respectively. That will conclude a tour of 10 venues (already expanded to 12 for next year) drawing an estimated 200,000 visitors.
And the cost? Brace yourselves - it's free. Coca-Cola, who first started putting money into grassroots football 20 years ago, pick up the summer's bill of almost £1 million, which enables their marketing manager, Simon Crane, to boast: "It's like taking kids to a theme park for a day and it's cost them nothing."
"They don't do anything for nothing, do they?" retorted a hard-bitten mum in Rounday Park on Friday. "It's just cheap advertising for them."
Others were more generous, like Sarah Spencer, a mother to four under-nines, whose verdict was: "Fabulous - a really nice family day out. I thought we'd have been here for half an hour, but we've stayed all morning. The only thing missing is an ice-cream van."
A Sunderland headmaster took 50 children to the Newcastle show in term-time and promised to bring his whole school next year;
a Plymouth family telephoned to check the dates of the Cardiff weekend and immediately requested details of the nearest hotel.
The Football Association not only endorse the venture but provide qualified coaches for each of the 20 activities, recognising a useful vehicle to push seven-a-side mini-football, which they encourage in preference to 11-a-side at junior level. Local professionals past and present have dropped in and Garth Crooks, the former Tottenham striker, is a personable host and missionary.
THE show works on several levels. Young footballers with ability will benefit from trying different tests, and from the coaching available, and can take part in full-scale seven-a-side games - occasionally watched by local talent scouts. Those who are merely enthusiastic will probably have even more fun, while for anyone too shy to take part there's plenty to watch.
"D'you have to wear proper kit?" a lad in jeans asked his dad rather anxiously, scanning a queue dressed almost exclusively in Premier League team shirts. The answer is, no,
though trainers are sensible.
In fact, the increasing use of club shirts as fashion statements these days emphasises football's re-newed role in pop culture, which is catered for on the roadshows's main stage. That is where Umbro show off their wares, kids play at being Naomi Campbell, and a dozen pop bands perform each weekend, including Ultimate Kaos on Sunday evenings. Sunday has been the busiest day at each venue (13,000 in Stanley Park, Liverpool), Friday the quietest.
