Not all fun and games with youth football

It’s been a difficult time for sports in both Torrevieja and Orihuela Costa.

It’s been a difficult time for sports in both Torrevieja and Orihuela Costa with opposition parties coming out and bringing to light possible changes in policies for each areas sports department. Last week Councillor and spokesperson for Torrevieja’s Alternative Popular Party, Domingo Soler, presented documentation that says that the City will put out to tender the service of the Municipal Football School. The winning company would then be responsible for all matters arising from the management, including personnel and Solar said “this belies the fact that on September 15 the Councillor for Sports stated that their 'Department will take over the transfer of all sports facilities and recruitment of sports coaches." He continued "This is a privatization of the Municipal Football School so the municipal name no longer makes much sense. What happens in this school is a singular event since the City Council hires the other monitors and coordinators needed to teach basketball, cycling, football, athletics, handball, gymnastics, hockey, aerobics and fitness!

The document Soler wielded to assert these facts was signed September 19, four days after the Popular Alternative Party denounced the PP for a lack of transparency in the management of the Municipal School Football and that students were being requested to pay amounts of money directly to their monitors. Soler said “Things must be done properly and acted without hiding anything, because public management must be immaculate.”

On the football pitch, parents have now been given a CAM account number to deposit money into and to hand over the receipt to their coach while a provision still has to be arranged for the municipal fees to be paid for players to receive their sports membership cards, with the football team being the last department to do this.

Meanwhile, south of the boarder down Playa Flamenca way, Orihuela opposition leader, Monica Lorente, has hit out at the new Councillor for Sports, Luis Galiano, for denying more than 200 Orihuela families places at the various Municipal sports schools saying that his  “incompetence in sports continues to grow and verges on insult.” More than 200 outraged families expected that their children would be able to get a place to play sport in one of Orihuela’s Municipal sport schools but have been told that there is not sufficient funding for those places and therefore, the children will have to miss out.

Ms Lorente, former Mayor and the Partido Popular Leader in Orihuela said: “It is outrageous that the Mayor's nephew is still playing football and following his dream despite more than 76 children, who also want to fulfil their dreams of playing football, being turned away from the Municipality’s football school.”

She confirmed that 76 children are on the waiting list for the Municipality’s Football School; 50 for the Multisport School; 28 girls are on the waiting list for the Gymnastics School; 14 children are on the waiting list for the Tennis School and 11 children are awaiting a place at the Basketball School.” She concluded: “If the Mayor’s nephew can play, then the other children must also play. The solution is clear and easy: there is no need to hire more monitors as the increased spending should easily pay for the sports classes for all the children, including extended hours, an easy rotation system and lower prices. If there are more children, prices should be cheaper.”

However Lorente might miss one vital point that federation squads only allow a set number of players and so, these figures need to be broken down into age groups to make any real sense however parents are incensed that their children have not even been afforded the opportunity to try out for municipal teams, which is the real message coming out. Parents in Torrevieja saw the possible privatization of the football school as a potentially good thing as this might lead to a slightly different and higher standard of academy style coaching and talent nurturing structure with the added benefit of additional over 18 teams, which would allow players more opportunities to play after their youth days finished.

Keith Nicol