GET REAL-3G IS THE FUTURE

IT'S been wet this year And last year. Chances are, it'll be wet next year, too. And the one after that.

- CHRIS DUNLAVY

By 2070, the Met Office predicts that winters in the UK will be up to 30 per cent wetter than they were in 1990 and that rainfall will be up to 25 per cent more intense.

As a resident of York, a city that invariably loses its annual battle against the River Ouse, this is quite frankly terrifying.

Rowntree Park, which mercifully acts as a flood plain protecting hundreds of houses (including mine), was submerged for over four of the last 12 months.

So, too, were scores of green spaces and playing fields.

A few miles up the road, Tadcaster Albion, of the Northern Counties East League, were flooded out of their stadium on five separate occasions last season.

"Financially, it's tough as well because you've got gate money, lost revenue at the bar, food revenue and so forth," said chairman JOHN 6 ATON 1 C Garry Plant.

"Then when Saturday fixtures are rearranged for midweek, they generally have a lower attendance and the extra expense of floodlights. It's very disheartening." 

And it's only going to get worse. A third of community pitches are already unplay able for two months of the year due to flooding. Based on those Met Office projections, the FA has estimated that 120,000 football games will soon be lost every year.