English Schools' Football Association

....."Having just sat in on our Competition Committee meeting I am now aware that we have been experiencing a great deal of trouble in downloading results from matches onto the website, and that the delays have made the prompt playing of the next round very difficult.

I can only apologise to all those schools that have been experiencing these problems, which have actually been caused by a shortage of staff and an underestimation of the work load involved in running all the 22 National Competitions. It is of great credit to the schools that every competition is seeing a year on year growth in numbers and that we now have a number of competitions in excess of 2,000 entries in the first round.  It is also of great credit to my staff that they have managed so well under really difficult circumstances, often working 15 hour days.

Thankfully our Trustees have given me the authority to employ another person in the Competition Department, so I am hoping that in the not too distant future our service will return to the high levels expected of the English Schools' Football Association.

However, you can help us to improve the service by making sure that your results service is also of the highest quality.  We have great difficulty with an email/fax/memo that only states St Hugh's 0 St Johns 1!  We do not know which competition this is in or indeed which schools are involved (there are lots of St Johns up and down the country!!) if nothing else please ensure that you give us the match number, age group as well as the result.  This will allow us to process your result onto the website without delay.

Good luck to all of you who remain in our National Competitions."....