Getting kids close to their heroes should be about sport not money
When Andy and Jamie were little, Wimbledon was just something you saw on TV. So I took them to see it as part of a trip with Dunblane Sports Club.
Who knows how big a part that played in the inspiration and belief that would lead them to go on and compete at the highest level in the game, but I know they never forgot that day.
Big money will change hands in football in the January transfer window. Sadly, big sums are also being demanded for the mascots who walk out with their heroes before a match. Reading that some clubs are charging around £500, it made me wonder why sport nowadays is too much about money-making and not about inspiring talent.
To me, cashing in on kids represents everything that is wrong with sports.
Being a match day mascot is such a big thing in a child’s life.
The closer you can get kids to the action the more chance you have of helping them believe they can do it – and walking out into a stadium with your heroes is a massive opportunity.
The priority in sport should be to involve kids for whom it would have real meaning.