Cheltenham Civil Service AFC president Rob Morrison describes his role, diving into the decline of adult football.
“I am the programme editor, I’m the match day cook. I just do whatever needs doing basically.” Cheltenham Civil Service president Rob Morrison comes across as the jack of all trades.
Despite his range of roles, he stresses that the job as club president is surprisingly simple. “It’s actually an easy role because it has no formal requirements to it. But I also do other things out there.”
A lifelong connection:
Morrison boasts a long attachment to the club, a journey which began decades ago. It’s clearly had a huge effect on his life so far. “I played for the club, I’ve been associated with the club for 30-odd years, so I started off as just a player. Over the years I’ve played, I’ve been chairman, I’ve been secretary. It’s a small grassroots club where you do whatever’s needed.”
When asked how long he plans to be at the club, Morrison’s answer reflects his deep commitment. “The precedence is normally till you die. It’s just that the nature. I’ve been at the club a very long time and the chairmen were sort of like, look, you’ve probably been here the longest would you be happy to do it? Do I need to do anything specifically? ‘No’, right, yeah then I’m happy to figure it out.”
The club was originally founded in 1948 as the GCHQ’s team in Middlesex. When it moved to Cheltenham in 1953, the club entered a team in the Cheltenham League at Tewkesbury Road, where it has played ever since. The name of the club was changed to the Cheltenham Civil Service to include other governmental departments in the area.
‘Cheltenham Civil Service 1st XI’
Unfortunately, the president has noticed quite a significant drop in the number of adult players at the grassroots level. He attributes this to several factors, sharing his perspective candidly.
Firstly, it comes down to players hopping from club to club, even at a grassroots level. “What you tend to find now is there’s not a massive amount of loyalty. You know, players will move for success. Teams will start, go through the leagues, start finding that they’re not winning every week and fold. So I think the community thing, if I’m honest, is a bit of a misnomer,” he reveals.
Morrison: ‘Grassroots football has been on the decline for several years’
Broader issues are plaguing the grassroots game. In Morrison’s eyes, it’s a trend which has gone on for multiple years. “It’s probably the million-dollar question, to be honest, and it’s really difficult. Sport I think does tend to sort of undulate, so there are things that may spark it off. It could be that England does very well in the cup and you get a peak of people being back interested. I think personally it’s probably been on a bit of a decline for a number of years.” It’s an honest conclusion from the president of a Cheltenham League football team. There’s no beating around the bush with Rob. He’s honest, and answers questions in depth.
“If you look at the number of kids that go to university for example, what you don’t seem to see a great deal of is progression from youth football to adult. New blood coming into the game has probably dropped off since COVID. I think had an impact, as the local grassroots stuff stopped.” The government noticed that the pandemic had a significant effect on the grassroots game: ‘COVID-19 lockdowns have had an overall impact on sports funding and have impacted both private and public providers.’
There is ‘less progression’ in the grassroots game:
Morrison highlights the bustling youth setups in the area. “If you look at youth football in Cheltenham it’s massive. You look at some of the clubs like Leckhampton. At some age groups, they’ve got three, or four teams. What seems to happen is that there doesn’t seem to be that progression then from that into the adult stuff. Leckhampton has got two this year. Yet if you look at the youth side of it, they’re much bigger setups.”
Cheltenham Civil Service sits 14th in the MARCLIFF Gloucestershire County Football League this season. In 10 games, they’ve won three and lost seven, with almost all the club’s players coming into the team recently. “The first team manager stood down at the end of the season and that was a conscious decision. He’d been involved with the club for probably 11 or 12 years running teams and had been really successful. In sort of January, February he was going to stand down and the new manager came in. As of today, he doesn’t have one player who was with us last year.
“So he ended up having to totally rebuild the team. A lot of the players just said, no, I’m not going to stay. I’m going to go elsewhere. And so he had to really start from scratch. It was a really tough start-up until probably the start of November, I think it was. They had won a game, bottom and they won their last three league games. It’s just brought some really nice guys in and it’s just great to see that they’re starting to win,” Morrison smiles as he reflects on the club’s rebuild. It’s clear that he’s proud to have witnessed such a drastic new dawn from the driver’s seat. This is now the reality for many lower-league teams, specifically close to home.
The 1st team are away from home facing @QWFC94 in the @GlosCounty League this Saturday.
— CheltenhamCivilServiceAFC (@CCSAFC) December 12, 2024
The lads will be up for this one after a week off and are seeking a 4th straight league win.
Only a short trip down to Gloucester so come and get behind the lads!🔴⚪️ pic.twitter.com/vEeFsMieTr
CCSAFC face Quedgeley Wanders away from home this weekend
“If we’re not careful I can see the Cheltenham League almost disappearing and having to become something with the Stroud League and maybe the North Gloucestershire League coming together, because there just aren’t enough teams to really keep it going. I think a lot of leagues are struggling.”
It’s not just football, either. “I think it’s happened with local rugby, so it’s not just a football thing. You know, the civil service club at one stage probably had probably three, four or more rugby teams. They struggle to get two out now and they’ve had to merge with another club.”
“I just think local sport in general is in decline,” he concluded. The club president thoroughly examined the multiple different reasons, picking them apart.
If the general outlook towards local sport is to change, he’s not the person to talk to. “If you want to understand the people that haven’t gone to do this sport. You need to speak to them. there’s no point saying to a university student why have you come to University because they’re the ones doing it.
“Ultimately there’s no point but to keep pushing and asking the people who you want to understand it.”
