- 13/06/2016
- Posted by: Mike Hedges MS
- Category: Uncategorized
Wales Qualifying for the European Championships
At a meeting of the National Assembly for Wales Mike Hedges AM welcomed Wales qualifying for the football European Championships in France. He said it has been a long time coming but it will promote Wales to a wider audience. We have seen how football success has promoted the name of Swansea around the world. Mike also called for more 3 and 4g pitches to enable football to be played throughout the winter.
Speech below
| Mike Hedges | I had begun to fear that Wales would never again qualify for a major championship
in my lifetime. I was one when they qualified in 1958; most Members in this Chamber probably weren’t born. But it’s a tremendous achievement for Wales to get to a major tournament, and I’m very, very pleased that they have done so.
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| Mike Hedges | I think that we need to look at it not just as being good for morale and good for
self-confidence in Wales, which it definitely is, but for the effect it’s going to have on promoting Wales. In many parts of the world Swansea is incredibly well known because of the success of its football team. I mean, how much would it actually have cost to get the same level of publicity Wales is going to get on television and in printed newspapers over the next few weeks, and, hopefully, over the whole tournament? I remember Greece winning it, I remember Denmark winning it, We’re not asking for the impossible. How much would it actually cost to get that level of publicity for Wales that we’re going to get now?
But can I add a plea,? I think that we need to get more 3G and 4G pitches in Wales because we need to strengthen football at a grass-roots level, and we need to get more young people playing it. I’m looking forward to the women’s football team also qualifying and I’m hugely disappointed] they lost 2-0 last night to Norway, which means that they cannot now qualify. I’m disappointed by that , but I think that, with the progress women’s football has made in Wales, the progress that men’s football has made in Wales, we’re certainly punching well above our weight and I would hope that we can get more 3G and 4G pitches out there, to get more people playing more of the time. Because you may not have noticed, but in winter in Wales it gets awfully wet and some of the grass pitches become unplayable for a long period of time.
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