The parliamentary group of the PSOE will bring this Monday to the Plenary of the Cortes of Aragón "an urgent and definitive solution to the collapse that the grassroots football of the city of Teruel is suffering." According to the deputy Pedro Polo, the situation affects nearly a thousand minors and young people from the capital and nearby towns, who suffer from "shortened training sessions and at odd hours."
Polo will defend a non-legislative proposal that demands the Government of Aragón to sign an agreement to undertake the comprehensive reform of the Federative field of Atlético Teruel, with an approximate investment of 350,000 euros, with the aim of consolidating it as the second public use football 11 field in the city.
"When we presented this initiative, we already warned that we were heading towards collapse. Today we have already reached it. Teruel is a provincial capital with around a thousand grassroots football registrations and only one public ownership football 11 field capable of accommodating this activity. The consequences are being directly paid by the children and their families," he reported.
From the PSOE, they insist that the shortage of football 11 fields in Teruel is forcing the scheduling of training sessions until very late at night, with kids who in some cases return home close to midnight and sessions that must be shortened due to the material impossibility of accommodating all the teams.
"We have training sessions that don't even reach an effective hour. There are teams that are losing around half an hour of training simply because there is no space or time for everyone," explained Pedro Polo, emphasizing that the problem worsens on weekends, when many categories' matches, including those of regional teams and higher categories, are concentrated at Luis Milla.
On these days, the socialist deputy indicated, the saturation causes minors to have to arrive at the facilities from 07:00 hours to change and prepare, while the activity extends until approximately 22:00 hours both on Saturdays and Sundays. "And, even with such extreme schedules, the programming continues to be carried out with enormous difficulties due to the lack of available space," he added.
SOLUTION IN THE SHORT TERM
To date, the field where Atlético Teruel trains, owned by the Bishopric and ceded to the club through a usage contract, had contributed to alleviating some of the pressure on municipal facilities.
When the PSOE registered the initiative that will be debated on Monday in the Cortes, last June, it already highlighted that more than 250 children used these facilities and that their use "was essential to avoid an even greater collapse of grassroots football in the capital."
However, Pedro Polo has pointed out, "years of use and the absence of sufficient investment for its reform have caused a very advanced deterioration of the playing field and the facilities, increasingly reducing their capacity to host training sessions and matches."
The deputy has emphasized, moreover, that the problem transcends the merely sporting. "We are also talking about safety. Last year, significant injuries occurred related to the poor condition of the playing field. We cannot wait for something more serious to happen to act."
In light of this scenario, the City Council of Teruel has announced an intervention of about 45,000 euros focused mainly on the grass, an amount that, in the opinion of the socialists, is clearly insufficient to address the underlying problem.
"CRUMBS"
"The 45,000 euros announced by the City Council are clearly insufficient; they are crumbs for the dimension of the problem and sound more like an excuse to kick the can down the road than a real solution," Polo has pointed out, linking this announcement to the proximity of the municipal elections.
"Grassroots football in Teruel no longer needs more announcements, half-truths, or half-measures; it needs a comprehensive, urgent, and definitive action," he has said.
Polo has described as "absolutely incongruous" that surrounding municipalities, much smaller, currently have better football fields than a provincial capital like Teruel, where around a thousand children and young people depend on a clearly insufficient offer.
"The problem is not only the critical situation we are living in now, but there is also no structural solution in sight today," he concluded.