From the First Great Western press release:
A local youth football team is to be saved with an injection of cash from First Great Western.
This year the Football Association published a new directive that will see junior teams compete at 9-a-side rather than 7-a-side level. The change allows young players to better develop their skill and technical ability before moving up to 11-a-side.
However, this left the Cornwall based Chacewater side, catering for children from the age of nine to 11, without the right equipment to carry on playing. That was until Team Coach and FGW▸ employee Lee Flamank contacted his employer looking to save his junior side.
First Great Western agreed to give the club ^1,000 to pay for new goals, 15 new footballs and training cones.
Lee, a train dispatcher at Truro said: ^The money means everything. Without the help of First Great Western we would not be able to continue as a team and the club would fold. It is as simple as that, and we are all very grateful for this support.^
The change in size of the playing pitch and the goal posts required to play games left the team with little hope of a future.
Lee explains: ^Along with my co-coach, Tim Moody, we have run the club, Chacewater, for four or five years. We play in the Kernow League and all the teams in the league voted to play the 9-a-side game. But to continue to play we had to move because we used facilities at an RAF▸ base. We couldn^t take them with us, and they were no longer the right size.^
The club has now become the Frogpool and Cusgarne Youth Football Club, attached to Frogpool and Cusgarne Football Club and will play their first game on Sunday 23 September.
Currently junior teams in the UK▸ move from 7-a-side straight to 11-a-side and playing on full size adult pitches. Many find the change too great and lose interest or drop out of the game. The directive brings the UK more in line with youth football on the continent.
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