A&H

Fixture cramming

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Rye87Ref

New Member
Level 7 Referee
With all the talk and emergency meetings of leagues, around getting fixtures in by the end of the season (weekend of 30th April & 1st May in my area, excluding finals which are played over the second weekend in May). Including teams playing double headers on the same day, games on any day possible midweek. I was wondering why leagues etc don't just extend the playing season.

Are they obliged by the CFA's & local councils for example to be done and dusted by that originally set end date?

Or is there a lot more to the 'We cant play on any longer, its the Cricket season you know' argument you often hear?? Which I used to think was a bit tongue in cheek but some seem to be very serious about it.
 
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The local Sunday league I operate on, told me they expect to complete their season by May 22nd. I'm happy with that but I do wonder if teams will turn up with a full compliment of players during April/May for what they may see as 'dead rubbers'?
 
Thinking about it, I do believe there's a requirement for the league to notify the CFA and obtain permission to extend their season beyond the date they will have previously declared as the end. They also have to obtain permission to play midweek fixtures if their league code doesn't state the possibility.
There's also a moratorium from the FA which prohibits 11-a-side football in June which, makes May 31st a fixed endpoint to any season.
 
Down my way, the problem is cricket. A lot of the local pitches are football in the winter, cricket in the summer. The players also tend to play for both (at least the younger ones)
 
Rye87Ref said:
With all the talk and emergency meetings of leagues, around getting fixtures in by the end of the season (weekend of 30th April & 1st May in my area, excluding finals which are played over the second weekend in May). Including teams playing double headers on the same day, games on any day possible midweek. I was wondering why leagues etc don't just extend the playing season.

Are they obliged by the CFA's & local councils for example to be done and dusted by that originally set end date?

Or is there a lot more to the 'We cant play on any longer, its the Cricket season you know' argument you often hear?? Which I used to think was a bit tongue in cheek but some seem to be very serious about it.
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Mostly the latter because of pitches & players, but also available of referees causes issues. The referees that are available tend to do 4-5 matches a week and their wives (?) want to do things in the summer.

The FA need June to process for the next season, leagues have their AGM, etc. Extension is not really wanted - as it places huge demands on the manager to get players who are fed up.
 
Most of the pitches around me are council owned, which means that the goalposts are usually taken down before the end of May. Massive fixture congestion towards the end of the season (I tend to do 3-4 matches a week), but it would be a logistical nightmare to extend the season.
 
SM said:
Down my way, the problem is cricket. A lot of the local pitches are football in the winter, cricket in the summer. The players also tend to play for both (at least the younger ones)
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serious question where on a football pitch is the cricket wicket
 
jofusref said:
serious question where on a football pitch is the cricket wicket
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The outfield. ....
Difficult to play football ⚽ and cricket together, the fielders will be offside... Even worse if one team plays in white :)
 
I remember the end of my first season at L4, finishing with 12 games in 14 days, all appointed by either CFA (semi's/finals), The FA (Contrib/u18/u21) or Supply League. A player made some comment to me before one of the games about how knackered he was playing Sat, Tue, Thu and I politely reeled off my schedule. Suffice to say, that was the only time he opened his gob all game, until the FT whistle when he said fair play ref, didn't realise you guys had so many games to do!
That was 1 of 2 crazy busy spells I had during my time as a 4, and I was bloody knackered at the end of both!
 
Having done 2 games since Christmas, now have a game Saturday, Sunday & Monday.

Here's hoping knees/hamstrings hold up!:oops:
 
Just received the vast majority of my March fixtures in the mail today and looks like the fixture congestion is alive and well - a dozen games already in the diary across the County League, Supply League and U18 floodlit .. and still a County Cup final and Sunday games to add :). Washing machine is going to be busy :)
 
Cramming is 21 games in 49 days (2008-09).

Wasting football grounds by playing cricket on them. Moratorium on games being played in June. Councils taking down posts. All contributory factors.
 
McTavish said:
Usually between two pitches so no football is played on the square.
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There are some very borderline fields in my area, because the ground around the cricket pitch is very hard it means there's a huge square, overlapping onto the fields, that's both hard and slippery...

Though it's even better when the pitch is on the field itself.......the pitch itself isn't particularly dangerous, just has astroturf on it. The problem is when they just put sand around the edge to try and make it smoother down to the pitch. I've refused to play games before when the sand has been soft and deep enough to be a potential risk.
 
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