The Kent County Councils football Essay Example for Free

The Kent County Councils football Essay This project will be researching many different areas of football. I will begin at the grassroots level, which is primary school, local and junior leagues progressing through county, club and country. The areas included will be funding, incentive schemes, provision for different abilities etc. The local provision of football around my area with the help from my own experiences locally will be compared to the National set-up. Though they are two separate topics they will link together. Review of Literature  In my local area there is large mounts of youth leagues ranging from under 8s competitions upward, the grassroots football. The Kent messenger (KM) newspaper shows the variety of league and cup competition. Youth football in my area ranges from Maidstone Minor Leagues to the Kent League, North, Central and South. The KM and another resource, The Downswood Mail always have advertisements for players to join clubs, or managers that are needed for youth football. The Football Association (FA) consists of the professional and amateur game, with different branches off of it, for example, Kent Football Association. The FA gives you details about coaching schemes and initiatives available to young footballers hoping to progress in the game. The FA also gives details of semi-pro clubs like my club Lordswood who play in the Kent League up to the main, elite premiership clubs. These clubs are local and National clubs to me. Football is getting bigger all the time; a lot of money is pumped through this sport, one example is the à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½45 million pounds the FA is giving to grassroots facilities. Though a lot of this money is given and accumulated by the top clubs. Coaching courses are available around my area, such as Andy Fords Soccer School, also larger clubs issue advertisements for when they bring coaches to your area, e.g. Manchester United Coaching Course came to Maidstone, my area, three to four years ago. The Kent County Councils football section shows details of coaching courses available in Kent. SportsAid allocates awards usually between 250 and 500 to young sportspeople aged from approximately 12 -18 years (junior competitors) who have competed with distinction within their respective age group and achieved. This helps to promote sporting excellence and it gives them a better chance of succeeding. Locally there is the Sports and Play Team, which helps in many ways the progress of football in Maidstone. The Sports and Play team will be setting up Football in the Community with local professional and amateur football clubs in order to create more opportunities for young people to engage in positive activity after school and to develop the clubs. The Sports and Play Team are one of the partners in the Active Sports programme and are keen to work with local clubs. Voluntary Club Facility Hire Grant helps to provide the facilities needed to run training sessions and to have a good quality pitch for match days, ranging form hundreds to thousands of pounds and this scheme was also set up by the Sports and Play team. Gillingham Football Club, local pro team, runs many after school and holiday training camps with opportunities for the younger players to help their schools out. The players can win competitions for equipment and small grants for sport in their school.  Discussion  Football as a whole is a growing enterprise in England and around the world. TV money and worldwide football stars show a lot of money is in and around the sport. Local football around my area uses a lot of recreational ground and schools playing fields, so facilities for players are limited. More money needs to be spent on proper catering specifically for football. à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½45 million pounds from the FA is going to be invested in pitches and facilities over the next three years from the National Game Scheme. This does help, but it is not enough for national improvement in this sport. Local amateur football gives a good impression of football nationally; this means that more input in the sport is needed. More progress is being made with issues inside football than with actual provisions for the sport. Schemes such as Fair Play, Eliminating Racism From Football and Child Protection Best Practice do not help with local and national provision. These issues should be addressed but equally with factors like facilities and pitches. Maidstone runs a Youth Sport Action Group developing football with the help of coaches, teachers and members of the community. They organise Youth Sport Achievement Awards and the Sports Fair. Conclusion The FA seems to be the main contributor to grassroots all the way up to the national game. More money is needed for County Councils, such as my local county, Kent. I suggest that schemes to improve facilities for amateur clubs are needed to help bridge the gap between amateur and professional clubs because the breach is currently massive. Money will improve players capabilities because of the enhanced equipment, providing the top clubs with better quality players and the players with a better chance of reaching the top clubs. The more money the FA gives to councils and the Government, the more football will prosper and generate money. If local and national grassroots football improves, more money will be generated by itself, which then takes off all the pressure from the Government and the FA in the future. Appraisal There are lots of ways in which the study could be improved. Without a comprehensive study of another Borough or County its hard to tell if my local area equates in a similar way to another. Many figures that I have found only say what money is going to be put in; it would help to find where the money has been spent so far. Many coaching schemes and building enterprises are organised but the popularity and success is not always shown. My area really only has one professional club, Gillingham, regions in and around London for example will have many clubs reasonably close. This means my area is disadvantaged but I would like to find out whether these major clubs to make a big difference to local and national provision.

Health and Happiness :: Happiness Essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  During the fall semester of 2004 I participated in a program to improve my habits of healthy living. I set goals for myself in four different areas, Exercise, Nutrition, Sleep, Social or Family Time, Play/Laugh/Create and, Spiritual development. During the three months of September, October and November I experienced some challenges and some successes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the area of exercise my beginning goal was to play soccer every day and try and lift weights at the gym. This started out really easy because I had soccer everyday and lifted weights on a consistent basis. After the season was over I have found that it has become more difficult to be discipline about running and lifting weights due to trying to improve my grades from the lack of effort during soccer season.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The next area I would like to talk about is the nutrition area. I have found this category to be one of the most consistent areas to keep going. It is not very hard to eat something healthy with every meal. But, I have found now that I have more time on my hands it is easier to eat more junk food than I would like to because I just eat what ever looks good to me at the time. I do not think about what I am eating like I did at the beginning of the semester.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Third is the Sleeping category which was the easiest for me to keep up with. I am one of those people that if I do not get enough sleep the night before it is hard for me to function that next day. So, I have tried to get a minimum of seven hours of sleep every night. It does not seem like a hard task but when you are in school, playing a sport and having a relationship with a girl it is hard to get seven hours of sleep every night. I figured out how to keep on a consistent basis.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The social/family time was a good one to have. It helped me talk to my parents on a more consistent basis. By talking to them it made me feel like we had a good trustworthy relationship with them. There were also times when I found myself not talking to them because I was to bust with either school soccer or my girlfriend. But, for the most part I felt this was beneficial for my relationship with my parents.

Fair-value accounting change Essay

The role played by the financial market in determining the levels of performance that can be recorded by the economy is not in doubt.   The 2008 economic crisis is a vivid reminder to all policy makers and even governments to ensure that issues that affect the economy are objectively addressed. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) which is a key player in the financial sector appears to be oblivious of its role in the economy and has once again used its mandate to develop a standard that is not relevant to business let alone accounting.   The move to adopt the mark-to-market accounting standard is a dark mark in American accounting history that may in fact lead to poor practices within the financial systems that have proven to be potent to the economy. It took America nearly 15 years to develop its constitutions; strategic management specialist have time and again pointed to the close relationship that exists between rapid change and failure and the FASB has for years taken months in seeking suggestions and deliberating upon them before making any proclamation that may affect the nature of the business environment[1].     All these are events or standards that the business world and America as a whole has come to accepted as being reflective of factors that affect the business environment. The speed with which the mark-market standards moved from proposal to being a standard brings about questions on objectivity[2].   A look at the last two times that America has found itself in crisis it has been the financial systems that duped to investors by inflating their performance or potential.   It is unlikely that such a hurried process which eliminates systems that have protected American investors will be of any good. FASB’s modification of its rules is often waited upon with anticipation by all players in the business world.   The change in the fair value rules or standards is the main area of controversy in FASB’s changes.   While the banking and financial institutions have praised the move as an effort to reduce the negative effect that previous standards had on developing a ‘clear picture’ of their performance[3], investors are worried stiff on the effect that it will have on disclosures by banking and financial institutions that are traditionally known for overvaluing their assets and even performance. The fair value accounting rules had been blamed by a number of financial institutions that are notably under pressure from the 2008 economic crisis for being irrelevant to inactive markets. The mark-to-market accounting system that has been presented by FASB allows companies to use their judgment to gauge prices of some investments and backed securities.   Analysts were quick to note that the measures could in fact impact on the net income and affect bank write downs.   Pro mark-to-market standard institutions have hailed the changes with statements like ‘the mortgage and market was not working and something had to change’.   This is reflective of the true objective behind the move.   Investors who have been defrauded by American institutions in a number of occasions are wary of the changes that place them in a position where they are susceptible to exploitation by the financial community. The integrity of a development is largely dependent on the process that culminated in its existence.   Under this consideration, investors are innocent of ‘unnecessary suspicion developed from poor past experiences’.   The series of event that culminated into the existence of the mark-to-market standard is a reflection of the negative effect that the congress can have on effective decision making.   In his presentation on March 12th the chair of FASB did not mince his words in pointing out the faults that are inherent of the mark-to-market standards that the financial community was pushing for. The definition presented by Herz which should be presumed of FASB’s definition of fair value is that it is the worth of an asset being exchanged between two informed parties[4].   In ending his statement the chair stated that America is in a challenging time that requires improvements in nearly all sectors and by trying to suppress financial information offered to investors there is little that will have been done to change the conditions.   His statement is a pointer to the misinformed objective that the change may affect the position that America currently is in and the existence of fair value system within financial practices. Whatever happened between 12th March and April 2nd is best left to Americans’ imagination.   The congress’ pressure has especially been cited by the media and being central to the changes that FASB made in fair accounting standards.   The same rule which had been dimmed lacking in objectivity became relevant to the American dilemma in a space of three weeks.   The hurried implementation of the change is the unspoken variables that belie its objectives. A pro derived from the development is the awareness that America is in a desperate position which needs to be addressed with immediate effect.   Moreover, the negative effect that bad performance within financial institutions had on the stock market may soon be historical events as financial agencies have been given a leeway to confuse investors and hide poor performance.   Profits that have not been evidenced since the likes of Enron went down may soon be usual and the same can be said of the pain that investors underwent in the turn of the century. The cons are clear especially sidelining of the effects that the operational environment has on operations.   The development allows for businesses to operate in a manner suggestive of independence from the operational environment while investors who may be aware of the prevailing environment are subjected to these daydreams.   The results may be increased wrangles within management boards, unethical practices within financial institutions and reduced confidence on financial disclosures which goes against their objectives. If any one thought that the FASB is perturbed by the controversies surrounding the development then they are in for a big surprise.   The FASB has practically done nothing and has sat back with some postulating that the next step they take may involve providing organizations with an environment where they can alter the value of all their assets at will. The standards used by investors and   financial players under the environment developed by the mark-to-market standards is non-uniform and may lead to a number of upheavals and even miscommunication that negatively affect value generation. It is evident from Herz’s speech on March 12th that the mark-to-market standard is a non-objective measure to curb the effects of the 2008 crisis.   The pressure placed on the FASB by the congress whose affiliation to financial heavyweight is not a mystery is central to the change.   This is not the first time such a development is being recorded for the French President played a pivotal role in some controversial changes made by the GAAP[5]. Investors should only worry for the short term for such subjective developments have historically proven to be uneventful.   It is only a matter of time before the follies in the mark-to-market standard that are actually known to all parties in the business fraternity manifests in the practical environment with dire results.   Changes that are appreciative of the operational environment will then be the only way out.

Analysis Of The Movie Dorotea And The Sight Of Her

Unlike Marcela who secluded herself in an effort to escape to her desired reality, Dorotea is tied to her family. Dorotea comes from a family of wealthy farmers who had her as their only heir. Her family protected her from the outside dangers of men by dressing her modestly and only allowing her to go outside at odd hours of the day, but even with these precautions, Don Fernando still managed to become â€Å"smitten with love† at the sight of her (Cervantes 231). Dorotea is described by Edith Cameron as â€Å"beautiful, modest, chaste, devout, well-educated, and capable† when Don Quixote first encounters her, but Dorotea’s history with Don Fernando reveals much about her role as a woman (139). As Don Fernando pursues Dorotea, her parents inform her that â€Å"their honor and reputation had been placed for safekeeping in [her] virtue and chastity† (Cervantes 232). It is the woman’s duty to follow the rules society has laid out for them, as opposed to how men are able to do as they wish with little to no judgement. Unfortunately, Dorotea is fooled by Don Fernando and is subsequently stripped of her virtue. He tricks her into fulfilling his desire by proclaiming to her â€Å"here and now I offer you my hand to be your husband, and let heaven, which sees all things, and the image of Our Lady that you have here, bear witness to this truth† (Cervantes 233). This is enough for Dorotea to accept his proposal, and do what he asks of her. With the loss of her virtue at the hand of Don Fernando, it can be