A message from the Chairman
I’ve been trying to write this statement for a few days. Not because I don’t know what to say, but because the more I think about what this past season has actually meant – to me, to my family, to the community we are slowly becoming – the harder it is to do it justice. So I’ll try.
What this club is
Rushall Village Football Club is not a business. It is a Community Interest Company, which is a slightly dry way of saying that legally, structurally, and in every way that matters – this club is not mine. It is not the Committees either. It belongs to the community it serves. To you. To your children. To the people who turn up on Saturdays and Sundays not because they have to, but because they want to be part of something that means something.
I say that because I think it’s easy, when you’re paying subs and standing in the rain on a training night, to feel like a customer. You’re not. You’re an owner. Every parent, every player, every volunteer, every sponsor – this place is yours. The decisions we make are made with you in mind. The future we are building is yours to walk into. That’s the structure of the club. And it’s the only structure I would ever want for a place like ours.
What our players did this year
What I have watched this season, more than the goals and the wins, is the kind of growing-up that football, done right, makes possible.
I’ve watched a child go from hiding behind a parent at their first training session to leading their teammates out at a fixture. I’ve watched players lose hard – and lose well, with handshakes and chins up – and I’ve watched them win hard without rubbing it in. I’ve watched coaches stay back after sessions to talk a kid through something that wasn’t really about football at all. I’ve watched friendships form that I think will last decades.
The football matters. Of course it matters. Our teams have had real success on the pitch this year, and I am proud of every single one of them. But what makes me proudest is the children we are sending back out into the world. Kids who know how to be part of a team. Kids who can commit to something. Kids who can lose with grace and win with humility. That’s the stuff. Everything else is just the vehicle for it.
If your child has come home this season a little more confident, a little more resilient, a little more themselves – and I think a lot of you will recognise that – then we have done our job. That, more than anything, is what we should measure ourselves by.
Discipline – because I want to dwell on this
Across the entire season, across nine teams, across hundreds of fixtures, the cards we have picked up amount to a couple of yellows and a single red.
I want you to sit with that for a moment, because I don’t think we say it loudly enough.
In a sport where it is almost expected for things to boil over, our players, our coaches, and yes – our parents – have shown a level of restraint and respect that quietly puts a lot of other clubs to shame. Referees notice. Opposition coaches notice. I notice. That kind of record does not happen by accident. It happens because of values that are taught at home, reinforced at training, modelled by the adults on the sideline, and lived out by the kids themselves.
We talk a lot about the kind of people we want our players to become. Look at that record and you can see we are getting it right.
Growing – and why it humbles me
We are getting bigger. Quietly, steadily, season on season. New teams, new players, new coaches, new faces in the crowd at every fixture. And the feedback we are receiving – from families who’ve moved over to us from other clubs, from opposition coaches, from people in the wider football community across Walsall and beyond – has been genuinely overwhelming.
I’ll be honest with you. It humbles me. In the early days you do this kind of work hoping that one day, eventually, someone will notice that you are trying to do it differently. And now people have. Families are choosing us not because we have the flashiest setup or the longest history, but because of what we stand for. That is the bit that matters. That is the bit we will never let go of.
To meet that growth, next season we are launching new teams – including, and I am so glad to be able to say this, a brand new U11 Girls Team. This is something we have been working towards for a long time. The girls’ game in this country is in the middle of a generational change, and we want this club to be part of building it. Every girl in this community who wants to play should have somewhere to play. We are going to keep growing the girls’ side of the club year on year, and I want it to be one of the strongest things we do.
Abbey Park – what it really means
Now let me talk about Abbey Park properly, because it is bigger than a pitch.
When we set out to make Abbey Park a real home for this club, we were doing something genuinely difficult. There were obstacles I won’t bore you with – funding, infrastructure, planning, all the work that goes on behind the scenes that nobody really wants to hear about – and there were moments I honestly wondered if we’d make it.
And then the parents stepped in.
The donations that have come in from our club families this year have been remarkable. Not because of the size of any one of them – though some were generous beyond anything we could have asked – but because of what they represent. Families who already pay their subs, who already give up their weekends, who already do the school run and the work and the bills and everything else that life throws at you, reached into their pockets to help us get this over the line.
I want every one of you who contributed to know this: that money is not sat in an account somewhere. That money is becoming a place. A real, physical home for this club. And because of you, we are on track to open Abbey Park in August.
I cannot properly tell you what that means. A year of work, hundreds of conversations, late nights writing applications, days on site in the wind and the rain – it has all been pointing at one thing. And in August, we are going to walk through those gates as a club that finally has a home of its own.
You did that.
Saturdays at Abbey Park
The volunteers who turn up every Saturday to help us with Abbey Park – and you know who you are – are the reason Abbey Park is becoming what it is becoming. There is no version of this that works without you, and I want you to know how much I appreciate every hour you give.
We will be continuing these days right through the summer. If you have never been, please come. You don’t need to know anything. You don’t need to bring anything. You just need to turn up. We’ll find you something to do, and we’ll make sure you feel welcome from the moment you arrive.
Two things I want to ask of you
If you have read this far, thank you. Now, I want to ask two things.
First – we want to create an Events Team for next season. We want to put on more for our players and families. Tournaments, fun days, parties, presentations, days out, things that aren’t just about football but about being part of a club that lives a bit beyond the pitch. To do that properly, we need a small group of people who want to help shape it and run it. You don’t need experience. You don’t need to commit huge amounts of time. You just need to want to help us make this place feel like home. If that sounds like you, please get in touch.
Second – we are looking for new coaches. This is the one I want to dwell on. If you have ever thought, even for a moment, “I’d quite like to give that a go,” please come and have a chat. You do not need experience. You do not need qualifications. You do not need to have played at any level. We will train you. We will support you. We will qualify you. We will walk every step of it with you. Coaching at this club is not just about football. It is about being one of the adults who shapes a child’s experience of sport, of being part of a team, of growing up. There are very few things I can think of that are more worth doing. If you have been sitting on the fence about it, please take this as your invitation. Come and talk to us.
To the people who got us here
To our sponsors – you make so much of what we do possible. The kit on the kids’ backs, the equipment at training, the matchdays themselves. We do not take you for granted. Not a chance. You are part of the story of this club, and we want every one of you to know how grateful we are.
To our coaches and volunteers – there is no club without you. None of this. Every single hour you give – freely, without complaint, without expectation – is what makes Rushall Village what it is. I see what you do. I know what it costs you in time and energy. And I will never stop saying thank you for it.
To our parents – for trusting us with the people who matter most to you in the world. That is not a small thing, and we never forget it. For the donations, the lifts, the matchday support, the encouragement from the touchline that can lift a kid’s whole afternoon – thank you. Every one of you. This club is, in every sense, yours.
And to our players – the youngest of you are six. The oldest are fifteen. Some of you will play football for the rest of your lives. Some of you will move on to other things. All of you, every one of you, will carry something from this club with you – confidence, friendships, memories, the feeling of being part of a team. Keep showing up. Keep working at it. Keep looking out for each other. We are so proud of you. Enjoy your summer. We will see you in pre-season.
One last thing
A grassroots football club is a fragile, beautiful thing. It runs on goodwill. It runs on hours that nobody pays for. It runs on the belief that what we are doing matters, even on the days when it feels like we are pushing a boulder uphill.
I want you to know that I believe this club matters. I think it matters to the kids who play here. I think it matters to the families who have made it part of their week. I think it matters to a community that has, at times, been short of places to belong.
So whatever you do this summer – rest up, travel, watch the kids playing somewhere else, paint a fence at Abbey Park, send us an email about coaching – please know this: you are part of something real here. Something that exists because of you. Something that, in every legal and human sense of the word, is yours.
Football is for everyone. And this club is yours.
See you in pre-season.
Mark
Chairman,
Rushall Village Football Club CIC
