The sporting world was very different forty years ago; in those days, many international sportsmen  and women in different sports were part-timers and were unpaid – in fact, they had to pay for much  of the privilege of playing for their country. Indeed, professional sportsmen were not allowed to  compete in the Olympic Games. While few sports had full-time professionals playing for them at  international level, even less sports had professional players at club level. Sportsmen had to fit their  training programmes around their work, families and other commitments; they had to take time off  work to play for their club if matches were not played at the weekend or in the evenings. Now,  though, there will be few international sportsmen and women who do not compete full-time and  who are not paid considerably for their efforts. Sport certainly has become a profession.  

Of course, while we might look at the famous soccer players, some of whom are reputed to earn  over five hundred thousand pounds a week (yes, just read that figure again, carefully), and decide  that we too must become a sportsman, we do well to understand that not every player is going to  reach that level or earn that money. Our children fail to grasp (in fact, it is their parents who fail to  grasp) that while we may be very good in our own age group, when it comes to post-school sport we  are not simply competing against players of our own age but actually against players who may be  anything up to twenty years older than us – in other words, we may be an automatic selection when  the pool is limited to one age group but when the pool is open it is not so easy to make our way in  the professional world of sport.  

So, while we humbly acknowledge that it is a tough world to crack, we should still admit that the  sporting world does offer enormous opportunities for our children. Just as school is preparing our  children for careers in academics, business and other professions (such as doctors, lawyers,  accountants), so it is busy preparing them for amazing careers in sport. That is a crucial reason why  we play sport at school. It is not simply limited to the fact that they can develop skills, experience  and expertise in different sports, by playing for teams in competitive fixtures, but it should also  extend to the point where the children develop an understanding of, as well as an interest in,  commitment to and responsibility for, the sports on offer.  

A career in sports, after all, is not purely limited to playing a sport, exciting though that may be (and  remembering that we cannot continue to play most sports at a professional level beyond our mid-to late thirties). The obvious progression from playing is to coaching the sport, and interestingly many  

youngsters are foregoing the playing of sport to gain the qualifications in coaching at a much  younger age. Similarly, youngsters are realising that increasingly there is a career in officiating in  sport, this being something to take up while still young and fit instead of looking to go that route  once playing is no longer an option. Such though is just the very tip of the iceberg, in terms of  sporting professions. Now we have physiotherapists and psychologists, nutritionists and doctors,  specialising in sport; with the rapid rise in sport on television we have commentators and journalists,  photographers and cameramen; we have administrators and agents, tour operators and chaplains,  all closely connected to different sports. There are hundreds of opportunities in the sporting world.  

While we may now see why sport takes up a considerable amount of the required curriculum,  offering vast openings as it does, even if our child does not have sporting ability, we need also to  grasp firmly why we cannot afford to drop the child’s academic studies to allow him to go off and  simply play sport. All of those wonderful careers in sport mentioned will require different intellectual  abilities and skills as well. The commentator and journalist will require basic skills picked up in  English lessons; agents and administrators will need to have pursued the business and commercial  subjects at school; physiotherapists will need considerable knowledge in sciences. We could go on  but the point is made.  

We must not blow the whistle on our children’s opportunities to pursue a career in the sporting  world; we must prepare them for that at school and enable them to career through sport. No  confession is needed, simply a profession!