Grass Roots Season Curtailment (?)
- Thread starter Kes
- Start date
Our CFA is meeting next week , they are expecting to say no CFA cups, but leagues can do what they want. Our league will probably go for small round robin cups comps just to get some football played but there's very little chance of completing the normal league divisions.
Common sense would suggest this current season be cancelled at Grassroots level.....with schools unlikely to re-open until March and leagues to complete their fixtures by the end of May I cant see them being completed. Some teams in my local league only played one official league game whilst others had managed to play 9 in the same period......so I think small round robin cups would be the best way to give everyone the chance of a run out.
To try and make the matches that have been played to date this season, should the FA look at extending the season into 21/22? This would mean a season of Aug 2020 to Apr 2022.
It would allow for time for any new problems which arise, and allow all cups etc to be brought up to date.
It would allow for time for any new problems which arise, and allow all cups etc to be brought up to date.
Steps 3+ can't complete as planned. That's for sure. They have options, but none of them are appealing
The question surrounds County Football, recreational stuff on Saturdays and Sundays. And Youth Football. Many of those Leagues will be able to complete, especially with the potential for evening games and so on. It would make no sense for County FA's to preclude them from doing so IMO.
We have the prospect of lots of opportunity to play football before June. It would be stupid to block this
The question surrounds County Football, recreational stuff on Saturdays and Sundays. And Youth Football. Many of those Leagues will be able to complete, especially with the potential for evening games and so on. It would make no sense for County FA's to preclude them from doing so IMO.
We have the prospect of lots of opportunity to play football before June. It would be stupid to block this
I've heard that suggested but I'm not sure it would work. Some leagues are already almost 50% through their league games, let's say they are leagues of 10 teams. Clubs in those leagues only have 9 league games left, they'd be finished well before Christmas. Yes, there are cups, but I still don't see it working. Obviously different at semi-pro level with bigger leagues, but I suspect there will have to be a uniform approach across the board.
Some of the logic I've seen from leagues that have suggested this doesn't make sense either. One has said that they don't want two voided seasons in a row, but carrying into next season would still see two voided seasons. Either they are saying 2020/21 will finish in 2021 and therefore 21/22 won't exist, or 20/21 won't exist on the records as it will be part of 21/22. With the way the vaccine is going there has to be a level of confidence that future seasons won't suffer any kind of significant disruption, so my vote would be to just write off this season, as we did last season, and start again with 21/22.
But a real shortage of pitches, especially if the cricket season goes ahead as planned.
The vast majority of Clubs I ref don't share with cricket. Besides, I'm only referring to playing on into May. The Senior County League will have problems, but there's no issue for smaller County Leagues that we know of (in our areas), including Sundays
WRT Steps 3 to 6 (or 7), it could make sense to continue with the season and resume again in August. Despite the vaccines, it wouldn't be a massive surprise if Covid continues to make a come-back on a re-current basis. It might be naïve to expect next season to go swimmingly
That said, Clubs can't play without paying spectators and hospitality. These are also concerns for next season too IMO
Must be different down here then, as it is always very difficult to get pitches after the Easter weekend. Partly because pitches go over to cricket, but also because a lot of local authorities (or their management agents) don't want to keep pitches open after March. If it was just the odd games needing to be finished it could be manageable using the venues that are still open and 3G pitches, but to complete 50% of your season in a couple of months? Just don't see how that would be possible.
Yes, there can be midweek games, but how many floodlit pitches are there available. OK for exception, but when you have every club / league in that region trying to book them they become a very scarce resource.
I think whenever we talk about this subject, your inclination is to identify potential problems and be somewhat negative. I don't mean that as a criticism, someone has to call out the likely problems otherwise proper preparation can't be achieved. None of the the arguments in this exchange would worry me too much however. We must prioritise playing football whenever the opportunity arises, because who knows what impact Covid will have on next season
When referring to midweek games, we get 6 weeks or so when there's enough light to play without floodlights (or 4G)
Yeh, I've heard of Youth League Officials getting it from all directions. But that's not a reason to pull the shutters down. Parents get dragged into voluntary roles without knowing what they're getting into
It doesn't seem like we've had a particularly wet winter, but yes the state of the ground is awful at the moment. That said, this can change very very quickly once the trees waken up and the mercury reaches double figures
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When you help to run a league as I do, you have to look at what is achievable, as opposed to pipe dreams of what might be possible. I'd rather we abandon now with less than 50% played, than go chasing it and then have to abandon with 80 or 90% played any deny clubs titles that they are that much closer to achieving.
You talk about not needing floodlights, but there are practical limitations around that. Even at the end of June, you are looking at having to finish by 8.30pm at the latest, which means kicking off by 6.30pm, 6.45pm latest. That might be achievable in areas where people drive to work and can drive straight from there to the game, but in London where large numbers of players work in the City, West End, Canary Wharf, etc, they have to go home to go and get the car first and it just isn't practical kicking off that early for many teams. We frequently have clubs tell us when they are given games on Easter Sunday, or where they have loads of players unavailable on a given Sunday, that they will be happy to play midweek towards the end of the season. Almost always, when push comes to shove they end up forfeiting those midweek games as when they look at logistics they realise that getting 11 players to a venue for an 18:30 kick off is impossible to achieve.
I'm going on many years of experience of running leagues and clubs, I'd like to say we could finish the season but in reality it just isn't possible. And interestingly, all other 6 members of our league management committee have the same view, so it isn't as if I have a minority view.
I've refereed 9 midweek OA games on grass without floodlights in just 3 years (forget about kids, they can play evenings no probs). Midweek games have been unpopular and teams do forfeit games, but that doesn't mean they don't happen. Besides, who travels uptown anymore and players will be much keener than usual to play.
So, whilst I understand your pragmatic views and experience, I'm indicating that we're not living in quite the same world today
And, I'm sure you'll agree, there are no guarantees for next season. That's why any immediate opportunity to play should be taken
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PinnerPaul
RefChat Addict
Think you're being a tad pessimistic there again
Sunset in London after 9pm in London all of June - 8 minutes past on the 1st, 17 minutes past on the 30th and that doesn't mean instant darkness then either!
Pragmatism rather than pessimism
We've had games kick off after 7pm in the past that have ended up being abandoned due to fading light, so we ending up saying no kick off after 6.45 without floodlights or agreeing to shorten the game.Sunset in London tonight was 17:07, which just happens to be the exact moment the train pulled into the station on my way home from work and there is no way you could play football in that level of light. Sunset is just that, the final act of the sun going down, the light starts to fade well before that time. The team that I managed trained on the grass in Kennington Park, we only went onto the astroturf pitch in September to save money, and we never trained beyond around 8.45 as it was just too dark. I can remember it well as we always got into the pub next door just as the second half of whatever game was on was kicking off ..!
Curious post, referencing light levels in winter at sunset on an overcast nightPragmatism rather than pessimism
Sunset in London tonight was 17:07, which just happens to be the exact moment the train pulled into the station on my way home from work and there is no way you could play football in that level of light. Sunset is just that, the final act of the sun going down, the light starts to fade well before that time. The team that I managed trained on the grass in Kennington Park, we only went onto the astroturf pitch in September to save money, and we never trained beyond around 8.45 as it was just too dark. I can remember it well as we always got into the pub next door just as the second half of whatever game was on was kicking off ..!
. Any angle from which to be negative? I wonder what % of people are commuting into London at the moment. I had to get to Euston for 9am one morning last week and the train was a skeletonUnlike other years in which midweek fixtures were admittedly quite unpopular/impracticable, I'd bet most people would jump at the opportunity this year because the Cities will remain quiet, players are not otherwise fatigued towards the end-of-season; and they'll be straining at the leash to do anything!
The world is not likely to conform with past experience this year. Besides, there's plenty of regular KO times to take advantage of before the season ends
In our area, I'd be aghast if the H&D & WHS Leagues and Sunday Leagues dismissed the opportunity to finish the season
The HSCL would have too many games without changing the rules and I'm not referring to the Spartan because they're toast
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PinnerPaul
RefChat Addict
I think if I was running a youth league I would say we were resuming when government says so and allocate friendlies, but would be the same fixtures if if they were league games. Any teams/clubs did not want to participate - fine just let us know.
No need for teamsheets or match report cards but obviously use FA appointed refs paid as usual and they would issue cards as usual!
Those who wanted to play would get in maximum amount of games possible - cricket and fading light permitting! - those who didn't for whatever reason - fine, no problem, see you in again in September!
No need for teamsheets or match report cards but obviously use FA appointed refs paid as usual and they would issue cards as usual!
Those who wanted to play would get in maximum amount of games possible - cricket and fading light permitting! - those who didn't for whatever reason - fine, no problem, see you in again in September!