MEMBERS of a Wirral under 13s football team took to the pitch in wellies for a kickabout to draw attention to the impact of heavy rainfall and flooding on sport.
The boys from Willaston FC's U13 Red team took part in the event on Saturday (October 12). It was one of a series of events round the UK highlighting the threat of climate change and nature loss to sports pitches and facilities, including a wellies match on Hackney Marshes with ex-Arsenal midfielder turned Strictly star Paul Merson.
Willaston FC's treasurer and U16 team coach Andy Murray said eight of his team's matches - more than half the total - were postponed in the 2023-24 season because of waterlogged pitches, with home matches washed out throughout September, October and the first half of November.
"For example this summer, we just had £15,000 spent to improve the drainage and grass surface.
"There are times when we haven't been able to do anything on our pitches because they've just been too wet or too soggy to get mowers and line markers on.
"We end up cancelling matches - it doesn't sound a big deal but that's tens, even hundreds of children that can't play football at the weekend.
"We all know the health benefits of sport. So we do need to act, we do need to respond".
At the Hackney Marshes event, former Arsenal and England midfielder Merson said: "With this message that [climate change] won't happen in my lifetime - what about our kids and grandkids? It's happening already.
"If I wasn't playing grassroots football on pitches like this when I was growing up as a kid, I wouldn't have become a professional footballer".
Research by the Rapid Transition Alliance in 2020 found one in four English Football League grounds could expect partial or total annual flooding by 2050.
Separate figures from the British Association for Sustainable Sport published last year show extreme weather has stopped 130,000 cricket overs in the last decade and that 120,000 football games are now lost every season.
Ex-Scotland and GB Rugby 7s Captain and BBC Green Sport Awards nominee Jamie Farndale said: "The science is clear - recent reports show that we are going into a warmer and wetter world where more matches will be cancelled because of rain, flooding, drought and heat.
"Unfairly, it is grassroots sport that will be less able to cope.
"Common Grounds highlights the national affection for all the benefits associated with local sport and green spaces, whether that’s improved physical mental and well-being to broader social benefits like reduced crime and better social integration".
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