Anyone fancy joining a Sunday league team?

[chicken 0]

Yellow Wall wrote: "Chicken - if you are paying £45-£50 for your pitch then when you add in affiliation fees, kit, balls, referees, laundry, insurance you must be on around £120 per match. That is too much! Especially when the people you want to play are young men who possibly have lower incomes, mortgages and young families. Add to what they pay a harsh booking or sending off and they can easily be disillusioned. What would happen if you decided you had had enough? Would your team continue? "

I couldn''t say right now on the total cost of a home match at this point. Someone else quoted as refs being an average of £30 per game - all I know is that it is £20 plus expenses. I''m happy to let people know after a couple of games what this equates to.

As for laundry, we have a share it policy. Each player gets to take the kit home at least once a season to clean. No direct laundry costs so to speak. Perhaps next summer I will actually get it to a proper cleaners!!!

In terms of £120 being too much, share that across 11 playing positions. That equates to around just under £11 per position. Bare in mind that you have no direct costs for an away game. So effectively the away subs cover the shortfall of the home subs. We also charge a £20 annual fee as a lot of costs are up front such as insurance, pitches being paid for two weeks in advance and some equipment.

I have always declared how much money the club has and allowed the team to decide what is done with it. I also suggest an amount that we go into the following season with as a ''reserve''.

As for the bookings - I think it''s a tough call. They do seem expensive to me, but that is because I know none of my chaps are the type to cynically hack someone down and are quite honest. However, there have been and probably always will be teams who are more physical and who will chop more than others. The entire point of bookings is to dissuade people from doing it. A monetary consequence is as good as any to prevent it. The refs for the most part are quite decent from my experience. They''ll only really book if they feel there is real intent or dangerous play. When I lived in London I was involved in games where reds were given but down graded to a yellow afterwards because although they were following the letter of the law by the game rules they did feel that it was harsh. One was involving a 16/17 year old lad and even the opposition requested to have it down graded. I do wonder if the fines should be less about the booking and more about the intent etc at this level - it would be a lot to put on the refs though.

My club''s structure has changed now - we have moved leagues. So I am now Chairman/Manager and have a secretary and treasurer. I keep and eye on them mind, and am perhaps a bit hard on them but it has been a great relief to me. I didn''t mind doing it all but it did start to become a bit much.

I''d like to think if I stepped down there would be safe hands to take it over, but, and I could be very wrong here, I still don''t see the sort of commitment from others that running a club requires. I have bought the odd thing for the club, nothing hugely expensive, because I consider it my ''baby'' having started it from nothing. I imagine I shall be involved for some time yet.

Having said all of that, Jas played for me for one season and has gone on to be successful in founding his own team with some very good and respectable players. At one point, I had two teams, of which I was doing everything for. That was for three years, and this year, upon the request of the FA the clubs had to separate to enter the league.

Again, pretty much a relief in terms of the organisation front of it although last year three of their number did step up to effectively run their team anyway.

Who knows if my team would continue. We tend to lose a good 30% of the squad every year through various things. Work, age, university, moving away to seek work or moving away to be closer to home etc. Or in some cases joining other teams with more friends in them. Some summers have been more of a struggle than others.

[Yellow Wal 314]

Chicken - local football would be lost without the likes of you .......... but the burdens are increasing and I do not see the help increasing to counter it.

I take my hat off to you but feel that in this day and age fewer people are prepared to do anything for nothing and fear for the future of the 11 a side game away from the higher levels.

Keep enjoying it!

[morty 0]

[quote user="Yellow Wall"]Chicken - local football would be lost without the likes of you .......... but the burdens are increasing and I do not see the help increasing to counter it.

I take my hat off to you but feel that in this day and age fewer people are prepared to do anything for nothing and fear for the future of the 11 a side game away from the higher levels.

Keep enjoying it![/quote]

^^^Its hard enough getting up early on sundays and running my teenager around Norfolk to games.

[BOO 0]

I hope the FA is changing to become more focused on grass roots football. Our own club of course has not done much to help ladies football locally.

[flecky76 0]

Chicken, there are still 9 Sunday leagues. 8 normal and 1 under 19 development league.

[BOO 0]

Flecky who runs the u 19 development league?

[Yellow Wal 314]

When all those players want to play with/against their mates next year is there going to be an under 20 development league?

[chicken 0]

And there is another problem.

If they belong to a club, will they be able to just step up to the league or will it be like my case and two teams from the same club cannot enter the same division together?

I do like the idea of an under 19''s league, whether it will work or not is something else. I have seen younger players treated poorly. In other cases some take a little longer to physically mature and a year more may help them.

I still think the biggest issue is player commitment and a lack of people stepping forward to run teams.

Ideally a club needs people involved that don''t play. But I think it is becoming more normal to see people playing/managing/chairing teams (like myself).

Back when I played for St.James Pub, we had a chairman who helped out with managing and other aspects of the club. I don''t want to say he was old but I imagine he was 50+. He was a great gentleman to have on board as he constantly gave advice to us younger players - quietly perhaps at half time etc.

Forgot to mention Pine Banks. That going removed a fair chunk of affordable training facilities too.

I do agree that the five-a-side has perhaps taken some players away from 11''s. I''d argue that it is a far simpler format which attracts more people. It''s also not 10.30 on a Sunday morning after a night out chasing skirt on a freezing winters morning waiting for the match official to decide the pitch is playable.

[flecky76 0]

Vanwink, it''s run by the Sunday league. See this link...

http://www.norwichsundayleague.co.uk/content/view/16/8/