Saturday football structure set for major overhaul
Saturday league football could be set for a major overhaul should a proposed new single pyramid structure at county and district levels be given the green light.
Norfolk Football Association officials have met with representatives of the Anglian Combination, Central & South Norfolk, Great Yarmouth & District, North East Norfolk and North West Norfolk leagues in recent months to discuss the future of adult Saturday football.
This follows the continued downturn in participation in the adult game in recent years, both on and off the pitch, with volunteer administrative roles also proving difficult to fill.
As a result a proposed new structure for the 2019-20 season has been agreed upon and feedback is being sought before a final decision is made.
North West Norfolk League secretary Andrew Dix said: "Over the past 12 months officials of the NWNFL have attended meetings with the other adult Saturday leagues in Norfolk together with officials from the Norfolk County FA to discuss the decline in male adult football.
"It became apparent at these meetings that all the leagues involved want to do what is best for male adult football across Norfolk as it is a very testing time for some leagues at present.
"Whilst the NWNFL have been able to stabilise the number of teams in recent years with new clubs replacing old it is uncertain as to whether we can sustain this moving forward.
"At the league AGM, our clubs made the decision that in principle they were happy for the adult Saturday leagues and NCFA to continue to look at a suitable model and the NCFA are currently leading a public consultation whereupon all participants are being invited to provide their thoughts and suggestions.
"All the NWNFL management team are fully behind the new model being fully investigated as we feel it has the potential to strengthen football in the North West of the county.
"Ultimately the final decision will be down to the clubs once the proposal is formally put too them."
Should clubs give the go-ahead to the proposals, the county set up would be across five tiers instead of the current six deployed in the Anglian Combination.
The top three tiers made up of 16 teams each and the fourth and fifth tiers both split into regions. This will provide capacity for 104 teams, 10 more than played at this level last season.
The district league would be across four tiers, the top three of which would be split regionally and the fourth split three ways, allowing for 108 teams, 14 more than played at that level in 2017/18.
Norfolk FA chief executive Gavin Lemmon explained: “The decline in adult 11-a-side football in recent seasons has been well documented.
"The proposed Saturday league restructure is the result of Norfolk FA and all of our sanctioned Saturday leagues working together to look for a solution to help support the game moving forward.
“With new league volunteers hard to find and team numbers in many leagues decreasing, the proposed structure is intended to help provide a more sustainable streamlined model for Saturday football.”
