The head of media and public relations at Oldham’s Avro FC has urged would-be journalists to volunteer at their local non-league club as a perfect spot to pick up career experience.
The plea from Liam Bambridge, who himself volunteers to help Avro produce content for their channels, forms part of the wider Pitching In drive, which highlights volunteering opportunities at the less glamorous end of the football pyramid – Avro play in the Northern Premier League Division One West, English football’s eighth level.
Bambridge previously spent eight years working at Isthmian League Premier Division side Lewes, which hit the headlines earlier this year when it became the first club in the world to assign equal playing budgets for its men’s and women’s teams.
He said: “The vast majority of people who work in non-league football are volunteers but what we are being asked to do is the same. We do post-match interviews, we manage the website and write the reports, everything we do is exactly the same as if you were working in the professional game.
“It’s the perfect place to try these things out, you need to be careful and aware of the same rules you need to follow, but ultimately it’s not such a pressurised environment because you are a volunteer. It’s the perfect place to get that experience that you would then hopefully take to a full-time role at a professional club.”
Bambridge has been joined in his call for volunteers by no less a footballing luminary than former England captain and Manchester City player and manager, and Pitching In ambassador, Stuart Pearce.
Pearce previously fronted a recruitment video for the volunteer drive though, perhaps due to his historical explosive tendencies and ‘Psycho’ nickname, Pitching In left him to hype roles that don’t involve writing his potentially terrifying thoughts.
