Annual Review Completed

The League, represented by Chairman Chris Conlon and Secretary Alan Constable, duly attended at the FA on Tuesday 20 October to discuss the League’s Development Plan and review. This is a procedure that has to be undertaken each year and determines the level of grant money each League receives from the FA.

Chris Conlon takes the credit for completing the somewhat lengthy form required and he explained to the FA representatives that one of the League’s principal aims was to see more of its clubs achieving Chartered Standard. Several already have it and it is known that both Colliers Wood United and Sheerwater are actively pursuing it. One criticism of the procedure has been that it has been perceived as being aimed at junior clubs and those with youth and junior sides, rather than male adult clubs running just senior men’s football but we were assured that this is no longer the case.

If a certain percentage of its clubs can gain Chartered Standard, the League qualifies automatically for additional grant money, which in turn can be used for the benefit of its member clubs.

The other priority this season is to look for further economies in the League’s administration although it is hard to see where these can be achieved, given that, unlike many fellow leagues, the CCL is run entirely upon a voluntary basis.

It was explained that the level of fines imposed upon member clubs has gone down dramatically in recent seasons. This seems partly due to improved administration on the part of the clubs, with very few offences being reported by referees at the present time plus, of course, the automated text system enabling clubs to report their results the moment a game is over. In the past a high proportion of fines were for late reporting of results.

On the development aspect, possible growth is restricted, as the number of clubs in the League is decided entirely by the FA and we have seen clubs in recent seasons that would be regarded as being in staunch CCL territory being moved to other leagues. There seems to be some upheaval going on at the FA at the moment with some very key people leaving their posts, people with whom we have dealt over many years, but there is no hint that it will affect the situation whereby those clubs in Division One not meeting the full requirements of Grade G will be allowed to stay at the end of this season. Hopefully the four concerned will manage to carry out the required work one way or another but the point was made as strongly as possible that if the FA do remove four of our clubs, we would expect them to find replacements. Expectation does not always accord with reality, so we will see what happens.

We should conclude by stating that the League was received very cordially and the FA asked us to pass on thanks not only to the officers of the League but also to all the hard working secretaries, etc., without whom players would not be able to go out and enjoy their football week after week.