Football Focus Issue 74 | Page 44

Birmingham Tigers and fans . The club ’ s aim interested me and it coincided with my ambition of becoming a sports journalist therefore writing for the club is beneficial for me as it allows me to learn and grow as a potential sports journalist .”
The Role
“ I currently volunteer at the club as the Matchday Photographer as well as being the Editor of our Matchday Flyers . My roles are challenging as they demand hours of design work and gathering ideas and written content about our club as well as information about our opponents to include in the Matchday Flyer . However , I do not see this is as a chore , rather an opportunity because sports journalists will spend many hours researching information and collecting data as well as images to create the final product , and so I view this as a learning curve .
Moreover , I view the challenge as the reward because I have been given the freedom to think and create , which links with my personal ambition to initiate many firsts ; some of which include the Matchday Flyer , but it also involves the creation of a Matchday Magazine and introducing live commentary of our games to our website and social media accounts .”
Atmosphere
“ The mood that currently surrounds the club is very positive as you can imagine , because we are weeks away from participating in the Midlands
Football League ( MFL ), which is the first milestone of the club ’ s development programme . This will mark our first time in this competition which is very exciting for the club and our players , as it provides us with an onus to work harder and play better , since the MFL is a feeder-league to semi-professional level football . After climbing the ranks of the football ladder , our players and volunteers are excited for the challenge that awaits them in the MFL because we want to continue to move forward and grow as a club .”
Off-Season
“ The off-season has been testing as ten of our top players informed us of their desire to depart the club . The effect of their departures was felt when we played our first game of the pre-season against Smithswood Firs FC , with the result ending 3-1 in our opponents ’ favour .
However , with the consideration that Firs are an established Division 2 MFL club and play one division above the Tigers , it was a great learning experience for our players to get a taste of the standards of the other clubs in the MFL . Regardless of the unfortunate circumstances , preparations are underway to improve the squad , for example training sessions will now take place twice a week as opposed to previous years in which our players would train once a week .”
2017 / 18
“ In the 2017 / 18 season the club hopes to raise enough funds with the help of the supporters of the club , sponsors and supporting businesses who recognise the effort and hard work that has gone in to creating the Birmingham Tigers .
Additionally , we hope to offer a title challenge to the new teams in our division but to also retain our status in the Midlands Football League . As previously noted , the MFL is recognised by the FA as a stepping stone to semiprofessional level football and the club hopes to succeed this season to reach closer to our goal of entering the semiprofessional leagues .”
Youth
“ Youth football is significant to the club because one of the reasons
Birmingham Tigers FC was formed was to provide a platform for talented young individuals to be scouted and progress through the football pyramid . Moreover , the club originated from a youth set up that played in the Central Warwickshire Youth League and some of the players from the youth set-up have progressed and currently play for the first team . Also , most of our current players range from 16-25 years old .
When we began to research the reasons for why young people from our
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