14-Year-Old Praised For 'Talking More Sense Than The Government' Over Sports Lockdown

A teenager has absolutely nailed the government's hypocrisy over stopping grassroots kid's football in just a few seconds.

The Balham Under-14 player appeared on Sky Sports, commenting on the fact that children's grassroots football will be halted in England during the planned four-week lockdown from Thursday 5 November.

This despite the government's chief scientific adviser himself saying he is "not aware" of any cases of Covid-19 transmission between children playing football outdoors.

"I don't understand it," begins the smiling teenage footballer. "Why can't we go play football in an open area, but we can sit down in a classroom; stuffy? It's like they don't like sports."

He continued: "I really don't know why we can go to school with 1,500 kids - but with 23 kids at a football pitch, we can't do it. It's annoying."

The views of the Balham FC youth player (who's counting the ref as one of the 23 on the pitch) actually seem to be in line with those of Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK government's chief scientific adviser.

Sir Patrick did not advise a youth ban on youth sports outside school. Also, in response to being asked by an MP if he knew of any instance of coronavirus infection taking place between children playing grassroots football, Vallance replied: "Not that I'm aware of. There may be evidence, but I haven't seen it."

Despite this, youth sport will only be permitted in schools from Thursday, denying many children the chance to get outside and play football as they would like.

So, in the words of Sky Sports commentator Gary Taphouse who shared the teenage player's soundbite: "This lad from Balham U14s makes more sense than anyone in the government."

Others on Twitter have been showing their love for the eloquent young footballer's persuasive analysis.

"Can we make this lad our Prime Minister?" asked football writer Jasmine Baba. Another tweeted Robbie Savage to say: "Get this lad on air to back your campaign. Future Prime Minister right here."

So this as yet unnamed teen has gone from simply wanting to be allowed to keep playing football for Balhan FC to suddenly been anointed to lead the country. All things considered, it might be worth a shot.

Featured image credit: Sky Sports/Twitter

Topics: government, Football News, lockdown, Football

Alex Reid

Alex Reid is a writer at SPORTbible who’s previously strung words together for FourFourTwo, Boxing News, The Guardian and, yes, Cruise International (it’s about big ships, not Tom). Interests range from football and boxing to real sports like WWE and darts. He is not a cage fighter.

@otheralexreid