2013 - a bad year for football. Don't believe everything you hear....

If 2012 was an inspirational year of sport - recent headlines might suggest 2013 will be the year sporting shame.  Lance Armstrong and the official Australian reports of wide scale doping give the impression that athletes from many sports are not all that they seem.  Add to that the startling revelation that our beautiful game in Europe has been tainted by match fixing – then the picture becomes increasingly miserable.

Should we be depressed by these stories?  On one hand they are serious and disconcerting, yet on the other are they truly representative?  Media companies are incentivised to exploit bad news for all its worth – after all bad news sells newspapers, drives up TV audiences, and helps drive sales and advertising revenues up.  As a result it can be hard to get a broad view of the health of sport, and in particular our national game.

Even the positive stories are frequently turned into cynical narratives in national media. For example when David Beckham announced to the world that he would be donating his newly acquired Paris St Germain salary to a children’s charity, the television and radio talk shows typically framed the story as a debate to decide whether we should view this as the rare generous action of an over privileged footballer, or a cynical PR gimmick? Pick the positives out of that one if you can.

The progressive sides of football are so often drowned out by the ‘newsworthiness’ of the negative stories – leaving the average viewer, listener, or reader with a tough task to gain any true sense of perspective.  The column inches devoted to controversies relating to players and clubs drown out the limited air time given to fantastic initiatives such as Football Aid, where these same ‘greedy’ players and football clubs give up their time and stadiums every year to raise huge amounts of money for good causes.

My passion is with the grassroots game – where community orientated clubs make a big difference to people’s lives in an understated and decidedly un-newsworthy way.  Events in 2013 at my club, Guiseley AFC, have reminded me of this fact.

It’s true that the club have attracted a lot of reflected positive attention in recent week thanks to the inspirational story of former Guiseley striker James Hanson who notched the Capital One Cup semi-final winner against Aston Villa.  Hanson combined his early football career at local clubs - including at Nethermoor - with shelf stacking in his local Co-op. His story is without doubt a wonderful example for any aspiring young footballer.

It was a joy to see Guiseley referenced in international coverage – Chinese, French, German, and Dutch to name a few.  What was even more impressive was that they all spelt the clubs name correctly – something that is beyond many of our league competitors!

Despite this coverage I noticed that pundits had a tendency to tinge the Bradford City success story as a rare fairy tale that contrasted with the backdrop of an ever increasingly cynical, negative and hard-nosed football industry.

Yet at an everyday level at Guiseley, a small part of the football industry, there have been so many positive off-field moments in the first few weeks of 2013 alone.  Few are headline grabbers, but all add to the pleasure of following events at Nethermoor.  Examples vary, ranging from when recent opponents Corby Town turned out in our stadium in a shocking pink strip – part of a season long commitment in support of breast cancer charities, to the entire Guiseley first team squad spending the last part of a Thursday night training session slogging away at putting covers over the pitch to make sure the Saturday game would go ahead.

This week also marked the first birthday of the club’s Community Foundation. This has been a fantastic example of a local club partnering with other community organisations to use football to make a positive difference to young and old people alike.  It exists as the club receives funds for community projects from the Football Conference – something that can only happen if the local community get behind the club and help build a successful on and off field team.

As a result in the last year first team players such as former Bradford City professional Danny Ellis have been coaching boys and girls during school holidays, hardworking volunteers have set up an Academy side for 16 to 18 year olds to help uncover the next James Hanson, while an adult 6-a side football tournament hosted at Nethermoor, in partnership with Guiseley Lion’s, raised money for charities.

But it’s not just football activities. Following the inspiration of the Olympics courses in Thai Boxing, Archery, Sports Leadership, Dance Leadership, Tri Golf, and multi sports – as well as vocational skills such as Food Hygiene and First Aid - have been delivered through partnerships.  All helping young people build skills and confidence that will set them in good stead for the future. Meanwhile the Nethermoor clubhouse has also become a social point for elderly people with disabilities who enjoy vital social time, chair based exercise, and yoga thanks to the clubs partnership with Aireborough Voluntary Services for Elderly with Disabilities.

Of course stories of corruption and institutional cheating should concern everyone in sport, a sense of perspective is essential though.  You can't expect to get it from the back pages, but if you look to your local club, I think you will see a far more inspirational and balanced story.