CAN YOU SPARE ONE MINUTE FOR ENGLISH SPORT?

How good did you feel in November 2003, when Jonny Wilkinson dropped England to Rugby World Cup glory? How did you feel when England completed the recent autumn series with defeat to South Africa? The elation felt by the nation in September 2005 found its mirror image in the despair of December 2006 as the Aussie summer came and the Ashes went.

This is not a recent pattern. I was born in 1966 and
throughout my life; the nation has died a little every subsequent four years along with the dreams held by the latest wearers of the three lions.

The rational amongst us reason that its all about suffering the bad times to appreciate the good times, why do you think Australia enjoyed the regaining a hell of a lot more than the ritual retaining.

In England, however, we do not live in rational times for if you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those twin impostors just the same with a massive injection of over-reaction then you to can contribute to the tabloid, phone-in, and message boards of debate.

If we do want a successful sporting nation, the nation of sportsmen, sportswomen, and spectators have to be in this together or not at all. We are legion, so why not make it count for throughout England there are over seventeen million players and spectators of professional and amateur sporting clubs. That is a powerful constituency for change.

So please get off those message boards, texts, and phone calls and spend one minute of your time to do something about it.

That minute is spent joining the English Sport’ers Club. For individuals, the Sport’ers Club is a free online supporters club to help back grass roots sport. For business, it is the perfect vehicle to demonstrate corporate social responsibility without spending any extra money.

The English Sport’ers Club is not a vehicle for cynicism or apathy it is a vehicle for backing English sport. It is a club with four guiding principles.

Attain a wider perspective.
It helps if the nation embraces all sporting success, yes, even from posh horsey types, for if they have won something it means Australia have not. Above all else remember that whatever team you support; you are all supporting the same thing, English sport.

Attain a sense of belief.
We need to get behind the systems in place not on their backs. In most instances the systems are in place to develop the talent that is there. We as a nation, however, do have to find a way of providing the financial backing to develop the tennage talent that exists beyond the professional sports. The Sport’ers Club has the potential to ensure that grass roots sport is ready to benefit from London 2012 not financially crippled by it.

Can the apathy.
The Sport’ers Club enables all, not just a few, members of local sports clubs to make a difference to their club and sport and it takes the exact time that forwarding one e-mail entails.

Get behind the nation at no extra cost
Sport’ers Club can help individuals and business invest into the nation’s sporting infrastructure. It takes one minute for an individual to help support the development of sporting heroes, for business it may take ten minutes to a day. For both it does not cost any additional money.

Even the message board cynics amongst you have to admit, even if the Sport’ers Club does not achieve all of its aims, surely it was worth a minute of your time? For it takes a lifetime of intense effort to become a sporting champion, it now takes one minute of your time to help make it happen.

To join the English Sport’ers Club sign up at www.yourbenefit.co.uk/england. For further information on the Sport’ers Club initiative please visit www.englishsporters.com .