English Schools' Football Association

John Appleby

As I enter the second half of my year as Chairman of the ESFA I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our membership a happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.

I begin my musings on a serious note; I have had a number of complaints in the past weeks with regard to attitude and behaviour of a couple of teams taking part in various competitions. The principle issues revolve around the use of bad language by players, ignored by the staff in charge of the teams, which some have regarded as intimidating. Fortunately the number of incidents is small considering the number of fixtures that take place but it would be remiss of me not to bring this to the attention of membership. We are signed up members of the RESPECT campaign and I refer you to pages 55-57 in the ESFA handbook which clearly state the minimum expectations we as teachers require of those participating in our game.

I continue to be impressed by the hard work and dedication of our staff at HQ. Without fail they are prepared to go the extra mile to ensure that our membership is well served and supported. Our new Marcomms officer, David Ebberson can only enhance and complement the work already being done.

My Council colleagues continue to offer me excellent support as well as working very hard on the behalf of membership and particularly their own area. During the coming weeks they will be in charge of their 5-a-side championships and organising in conjunction with County Colleagues, the TESCO Cup.

The clement weather has been a bonus for the Competitions Department who year on year, despite an increase in the competitions portfolio, continue to deliver a product of the highest quality. They have furnished me with details of some of the venues for this year’s finals with flagship stadia such as Pride Park, Hillsborough, Bramall Lane and the City Ground to mention but a few.

Alicante is the venue for the training camp for the International squad and the final coaching weekend at Lilleshall culminates with a game against Australia at Old Wulfrunians ground in Wolverhampton (details on the website ). This will give the squad the best possible preparation for the Centenary Shield games and manager Andy Williams and his coaching team will be hoping to reclaim the trophy after an absence of three years. The Under 15 girl’s final trial takes place late this month and a squad will be picked to take part in a six team tournament in Dublin over Easter. The girls will also be hoping to retain the RBOS trophy when they meet Scotland at Torrey Glen.

I have tried to see as many games as possible in a whole variety of competitions and I am grateful for the hospitality and warm welcome offered to me by so many schools and Associations. It never ceases to amaze me the commitment and effort of those who give up their time in the cause of school’s football. Without your commitment ESFA would not exist and I thank you all.

The only black cloud on the horizon would seem to be the reluctance of some of our membership to achieve compliance with the regulations for CWO’s. John Read could not have put a stronger case to the FA for both exemption and portability for teachers. His words fell on stony ground with the FA being immovable and put into the simplest of terms, if you run a district or representative team/s then you must be compliant with FA regulations on safeguarding etc or ESFA will be unable to accept you affiliation for 2012/2013. I appeal to all Associations who are not compliant to speak or contact Martin Duffield or Sarah Da Costa (see website for details) for advice.

To end on a positive note I would ask every Association to make a real effort to recruit at least one person under the age of 25 to become a member of your Association to ensure that future generations of school’s footballers will reap the benefits that those involved currently and in the past have accrued.

John Appleby, Chairman
January 2012.