Further Update - 5th February 2021
Further to the League Secretary’s update I wish now to confirm what the committee have decided to do to restart and complete the season.
Objectives
1) To avoid ‘Null and Void’ altogether
2) Situation whereby we can acknowledge League winners and Runners Up
3) Complete the Cup competitions. To achieve the above we will need your help. We will ask you to
- Be flexible with kick off times
- Be able to play midweek if necessary
- Switch grounds
- Inform us immediately if you wish your season to end now
Proposals
The League have agreed to finish each league as follows
- League to restart on Sunday 4th April and end on 26th June
- Each team to have played every other team within their division once. This will allow us to determine the League winners.
- Cup competitions to be played to a finish
Rationale
Some of the other Sunday leagues have scrapped their season already or decided just to run their cup competitions. With 137 teams we feel we owe a duty to you all to try and get some football played for all clubs if possible. It is simply impossible to fully complete the season. We have potentially 13 weeks available but some teams will have up to 18 games to play. There will be a shortage of pitches available as some councils have decided not to reopen their venues. There are a total of 307 games to play to allow us to fit in the league and cup programme. This number may reduce if there are some teams that don’t wish to play. In summary these are the number of games per division needed to complete the season Prem - 6 Div 1 - 11 Div 2 - 5 Div 3 - 17 Div 4 - 21 Div 5 - 25 Div 6 - 20 Div 7 - 29 Div 8 - 29 Div 9 - 18 Div 10 - 26 Div 11 - 28 Div 12 - 19 We appreciate there will be some clubs who will want to play more football but we must strike the right balance to ensure all divisions are settled the same way. We cannot please everyone but ask for your understanding in these unreal times. To put into perspective we have over a 100 teams that will have a minimum of 3 games to play. There may be some clubs who do not want to play. The League will accept any decision for a club to withdraw now. In terms of fixtures for those teams games will be awarded to the opposition. No fines will be due for teams withdrawing from the league now. There will be a handful of teams who have already played each other twice. These results will not be expunged, however, if they impact on the top 2 positions then we may consider a play off tie. I’m not expecting that to happen. Clubs will need to be flexible in terms of pitches and kick off times.
Registrations
All player registrations are extended to 8pm March 9th. After that date new players will not be permitted. Once we get the go ahead from Surrey FA we will start producing fixtures for the website.
