Please see link below for information re a football Holiday club for 7-13 year olds for the upcoming school holiday (1st to 4th June). The club is delivered in partnership with Cheshire FA.

FA_Holiday_Club_2-min.pdf

Health and safety information. 

On Tuesday of this week, nine-year-old Jordan Banks was struck by lightning during a football coaching session and tragically lost his life.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has issued guidance https://www.rospa.com/leisure-safety/advice/lightning about measures to reduce the risk of being struck by lightning.

Our thoughts go out to Jordan’s family and friends.

We are trying to use the Full Time SMS reporting device for all remaining fixtures. This gives us the chance to make sure it is working correctly.

Every team has an SMS contact on Full Time who will receive a text during the game. It will look like this

FA Full-Time results: AE15 v BE15, Sat 10 Apr 09:30. Reply home and away scores in format H-A e.g. 3-2

All you have to do is reply with the score i.e 0-0 or 5-0 etc. Do not include anything else (some of you have been writing an essay!!).

Sometimes it will ask you to reply in the format 3-2 AE15 (the code is unique to your team so just unclude this after the score, dont worry about what the code means it is just a unique reference for your team and may have stayed with you when you were U11 and now you are U15)

Both teams must submit the result on the SMS service else Full-Time will not recognise the result.

If you have 2 games (U9/U10/U11) please text 1st result straight after the game so results system can recognise which game.

If you or one of your co-coaches isn’t getting an SMS from Full-Time please let me know. (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

In addition HOME TEAM MUST STILL COMPLETE THE MATCH REPORT FORM AND SUBMIT TO LEAGUE.

See below the letter from County re the cancelation of this seasons Cheshire County Cup Competitions.

Cheshire County Football Association Cup Competitions for Season 2020 – 2021

To:

District Association Secretaries, League Secretaries and Participating Club Secretaries.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

At a joint meeting of the Cheshire FA Cups and Youth Committees held on Tuesday 9^th March the decision was taken by the members present to cancel all eleven competitions for season (2020 – 2021)

The decision, although disappointing, means that Leagues who are intending to complete their Fixture program can now plan ahead without the need to schedule CCFA Conference Dates in their timetable for the remainder of the season.

For the benefit of transparency, an explanation as to how the Members arrived at their decision is clarified below including information obtained from participating clubs.

When the announcement from the Government confirmed grassroots football could restart on March 29^th, we wrote to all leagues asking for clarification on their plans to continue or curtail their league fixtures. Almost all confirmed they were planning to continue in some form or other to provide competitive football for their member clubs. With that information we then wrote to all clubs asking if they wished to continue in their respective competition or withdraw their team should we decide to continue with all CCFA Cups Competitions. The response from the Clubs in the Amateur Cup, Sunday Challenge Cup and Ladies Cup was less than 50% although the majority of those wished to continue should the decision to progress be approved. Almost all of the Youth, Junior & Minor Girls and Boys Leagues and Clubs replied indicating they wished to continue should the competitions also move forward.

Although not all clubs replied, this was a positive indication to continue.

The members then discussed issues relating to the number of outstanding fixtures, proposed fixture dates, away teams travelling, ground availability and any current and additional restrictions that may be imposed by the FA, County FA and Local Authority after 29^th March.

• In the Amateur Cup we still have 64 teams requiring 6 dates to complete.
• In the Sunday Challenge Cup still have 64 teams requiring 6 dates to complete.
• The Ladies Cup has 24 teams, and they need 5 dates to complete,
• The Boys Youth, Junior & Minor have at least 32 in each requiring 5 dates
• The Girls competitions have between 12 and 16 teams needing 4 dates.

• Depending on when Leagues intend to finish there are a minimum of 9 weekends and maximum of 13 to get their fixtures completed assuming all facilities remain open and shared facilities between leagues are available. Most Leagues have indicated they will also need to fixture midweek games in to complete their program.

• Scheduling the games on - Saturday / Sunday dates would have consequences with our affiliated leagues. Midweek fixtures may prove difficult for teams travelling from one end of the county to another for an evening ko.
• Assuming all the grounds are re-opened and do so for the foreseeable future enabling those leagues who wish to continue their fixture program. There may be difficulty in scheduling games to avoid double booking especially if there are different leagues involved. At present some LA’s are allowing the use of the grounds until the middle of June but that may not be the same for all Authorities across Cheshire.

• There are restrictions on indoor gatherings and Local Authority changing facilities remain closed at present and possibly will do so after 29^th Those clubs with private facilities may also have restrictions on the use of changing and shower rooms.

• As grassroots football can restart on Monday 29^th March, it is not clear if the present restrictions will remain and if there will be any additional conditions placed on the Leagues, Clubs and Players before they can take part in any organised football.

Taking the responses from the leagues and clubs in to account against the above factors relevant at present as well as any possible disruptions that may arise, the re-introduction of a geographical ‘Tiered System’ for example the Committees decided that in the best interest of the Association, Leagues and Clubs all competitions have been cancelled for this season.

Although this may be disappointing to some, the Committee Chairmen, taking all factors in to consideration, are sure that Clubs will believe the decision was correct.

 To avoid any misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the decision, we would ask all club secretaries to circulate the above information to players, club officials and supporters.

Kind regards

Kevin Mighall

Youth & Competition Secretary