Economic significance Essay

Another key turning point that changed the course of football forever, occurred on the 11th may 1985, when Bradford city should have ended the season on a high. For once after a long line of defeats and triumphs they had made it to the third division. However, the day ended on one of the worst footballing disasters in the world. Just before half-time, someone noticed smoke coming up through the wooden floor of the main stand, which had served the City fans for 77 years. The alarm was raised, but nobody had realised that a pile of rubbish had ignited below the seating and within 5 minutes, the whole stand was ablaze. Tremendous feats of heroism from fans and staff alike were witnessed by the television cameras that were at Valley Parade, as attempts were made to rescue people from the stand with the roof alight and raining burning material from above. In total, 56 people lost their lives that sad day and 200 suffered burns. Following a report into the fire, safety was tightened up at grounds across the country to ensure that a disaster like this would never happen again. The report by Lord Justice Popplewell stated that old wooden stands like the one at Valley Parade were clearly a fire hazard and recommendations for the safety of football grounds were made.  All clubs with wooden stands were forced to provide exits in case of fire. In the early weeks of the following season exits had been made from the seats to the old style paddocks. Similar measures were taken at Reading’s old Elm Park ground. Nowadays stands are made of non-combustible materials like concrete and steel. In more recent times, the security that follows large scale events such as the world cup has seen many new security features, to irradiate football hooliganism and terrorist threats. Since the atrocities of September 11th 2001, security has never been higher. Now fans have to go through metal detectors and not carry any glass bottles etc. This is to ensure that no â€Å"weapons† are introduced into the stadium and therefore it remains a safe and secure environment for all concerned. Economic significance Football without a doubt is one of the worlds most important sports ever played. Participated by millions upon millions of people every year and watched by even more- football is the most widely known and participated sport. Through which a considerable economic activity is generated. The contribution to the economy through football can be measured in the following ways; Number of employed within the industry, participation during leisure time and money generated via football. Employment  The number of people employed in football cannot be totally measured due to its constantly changing scale of volunteers that offer their services for free as they enjoy the game so much.  However, data taken from the â€Å"FIFA big count† survey has enabled people to make rough estimation on about the number of people involved within the sport. In total it has been estimated that an outstanding 30 million people officiates and referees are employed to make the game as accessible and enjoyable as it is today. In total with the added 16 million professional players of both sexes that are employed within the industry of Football it is estimated that an outstanding approximately 45 million people worldwide generate economic income via football. Furthermore, as part of another piece of research conducted by the sports council, it estimates that around 220 million a year would be generated if volunteers revived an average wage of 8.31 an hour for the kind of work that they conduct; making it the second most valuable sport behind the leader’s bowls.  In addition to the direct employment of football organisers etc, subsequent employment is generated from large scale events such as Euro 2000 which alone created approximately 4000 full time jobs per year, through the various occupations that are needed to host such large scale events. For example, hotel workers that are needed to accommodate the large number of fans. Participation  People from all backgrounds; rich/poor, black/white actively participate in football through various forms. Some participate in the game via a quick game in the park, where as some participate in a local team or organisation. Either way they all help to contribute to the economy. The majority of football is played on a casual basis according to the recent surveys conducted into the level of which football is played. In basic terms this means that football is the sixth most participated game in the world with the nearest rival cricket. In terms of numbers, there are currently 220 million men and 20 million women which actively participate in the game of football. In terms of how much that represents the population percentage, it represents that around 4%. Or in other words one adult in twenty five plays football on a casual basis with no qualification nor membership to a team. In addition to the number of people which participate on a casual basis there is also an additional 12.5 million people that play for the 1.5 million teams of the 300,000 clubs worldwide. This not including the additional 15.5 million male juniors and 2 million women juniors which also play as part of a team set-up to the grand total. Thus it can be concluded that an approximately 3o million people play football in an organised manner. Either in a team or club. While it can only be looked at in terms of population percentage as half percent, on another hand it can be looked as the entire population of Canada. The final participation category is youth football, which without a doubt is where most of footballs participants lye. In the world there are approximately 120 million children/youth players which play in a casual and organised environment. Of which 15 million boys and 2.2 million girls play the beautiful game. This is an ever increasing number that sets to get larger as the population gets ever bigger. The effects of which are set to generate a greater income to the economies of the world as they get older and have greater amounts of disposable incomes that they can spend on football.