The Ref Stop

It was nice while it lasted...

Had an email yesterday saying that the County Cup game I was originally appointed to in January has been rearranged for 11 April - having overindulged a little over the last few months too, I'm going to have to step up the training!
 
The Ref Stop
Jorik0907 said:
Well, we're getting back on the pitch in the Netherlands. Nothing official but intra-club competitions. Having been out with an injured knee since October and blatantly overeating on the on-sale easter eggs, Saturday's going to be a challenge. How are things in the rest of the world?
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I’ll try and give a brief summary in England.

In the 4 levels below ‘Elite Football’ which is Step 3 to Step 6 the season has been stopped. Each league is allowed to run a separate competition, where it is optional for the clubs to participate. Across the country some leagues have chosen to do so, others not. These games can start early April.

The challenge is that it looks like spectators won’t be allowed in until May 17th. For most clubs at this level, it is not viable for them to play without fans as they have no way of generating any income through gate receipts and other match day elements. My suspicion is that the uptake on entry to the competitions will be very low and most won’t even start.

At the level below this ‘Grassroots’ where for the most part (with a few exceptions) it’s played on recreation grounds and there are no admission fees, this has the green light to start early April. The season has also been extended to the end of June to allow all games to be played including midweek games to hep catch up.

There are a few potential things to watch out for with this.

1) Many of the recreation grounds are used for the summer sport of cricket from May onwards. So there may be issues in terms of available venues to play games as the cricket leagues will want to be playing
2) A fair amount of grassroots footballers also play cricket, so if games are clashing it may be that teams who have a high amount of cricketers are forfeiting games because they can’t get a team
3) At this level, and certainly the deeper into grassroots you go, playing midweek is far from the norm. I’d suspect that there would be a fair amount of last minute forfeits from teams when they realise at 3pm on match day that they’ve only got 6 or 7 players available that night.

On a personal note, all good. I’m fitter than I was before we got locked down and have lost a total of 25lbs in weight since April last year, so lockdown hasn’t been a complete disaster!
 
Jorik0907 said:
Well, we're getting back on the pitch in the Netherlands. Nothing official but intra-club competitions. Having been out with an injured knee since October and blatantly overeating on the on-sale easter eggs, Saturday's going to be a challenge. How are things in the rest of the world?
Click to expand...
Down under, third round 2nd tier down to 5th tier this weekend (below that is grassroots). Top tier never stopped, just interrupted. Grassroots starting end of this month most places. Trail/friendly games started last November and have been in full swing since early Feb.
 
Justylove said:
On a personal note, all good. I’m fitter than I was before we got locked down and have lost a total of 25lbs in weight since April last year, so lockdown hasn’t been a complete disaster!
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I'm fitter (sort of), but fatter. So win/lose I guess?

I've been working on my very bad endurance. I've been okay at sprinting etc, but long distance running has always been my weakness. I'm now regularly smacking out 5km. Hoping to push that to 10km by next season, since this season has been cancelled at my tier-level.
 
Update from Middlesex FA - they have abandoned Youth County Cups, but are going ahead with all the O/A Cups, with the finals due to be played May/June.
 
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