English Schools' Football Association

ESFA Newsletter - Monday 27th March 2006

Message from the Chairman Mr. Kevin Wilbur

Some of my proudest moments during my term of office as your Chairman have been to front the Association during the International games.

I have been to the FA under 16 games at Telford, versus Wales; Chester, versus Northern Ireland; Kilmarnock, versus Scotland and Blankenburg, versus Belgium. Liaison between the ESFA and the F A is improving all the time, and I was pleased to be consulted relating to the policy document about to be jointly produced concerning the future of our national game.

More importantly to the ESFA, I have been at the helm during our Under 18 International games. No sooner had the squad been selected, they were called into action at Stafford Rangers to play Australia. A creditable 2:2 draw entertained the crowd. We then travelled to Spain for training at Valencia F C and played their strong youth team, going down narrowly 2:1.

Glenavon F C was next, in the first Centenary Shield game, where the team beat Northern Ireland 3:0. Then on to Cambridge University, recording a 2:1 victory, followed by Plymouth Argyle where we were the hosts to Scotland in the second of the Centenary Shield games. Another victory, this time by 2:0.

And so on to the final game, at Crawley Town, versus the Republic of Ireland. Crawley is the nearest ground to the home of our Team Manager, Peter Chisholm, and as it is the last game, it is bound to be extra special. A win would mean we are the outright winners of the Centenary Shield; a draw or loss would prolong the agony until the Republic's final game on April 10th. Check the website for the result!

The end of the season is getting ever closer, and cup finals and league championships are nearly upon us. Our Competitions Department has been working flat out to cope with all the arrangements, and I must congratulate everyone in the Office in Stafford for their sterling efforts. The personnel there have had their share of illness, but have soldiered on remarkably well. Thank you to Mike, Lorna, Sue, Dawn and Darren.

I am pleased to say that Chief Executive, John Read is slowly recovering from his illness. It did not stop him from working - perhaps it should - but his doctor did advise him to slow down a little. Easier said than done!

All the Easter Festivals are organised and ready to go. The Jersey (Under 11) Festival begins on Saturday 8th April; the Isle of Wight (Under 14) on Sunday 9th April; and the North Tyneside (Under 11) and Durham (Under 13) Festivals begin on Monday 10th April. Thank you to all the organisers for spending many hours ensuring these events run so smoothly. If you are taking a team to a Festival then I know you are guaranteed a really warm welcome and that you and your team will thoroughly enjoy the occasion. I look forward to meeting you there.

Primary Association colleagues should have received a questionnaire from the Office relating to primary football, particularly Year 5 and Year 6 football. If you have not yet responded, then please do so as soon as you can, either on line at www.esfa.co.uk or by paper copy. The more replies we have, the better we can respond to questions raised by members.

Arrangements are currently being made for the AGM in Brigg, North Lincolnshire on Saturday, 24th June. Further details will be issued shortly. I am arranging for several hotels and travel lodges in the local area to be identified, should you not wish to stay at Forest Pines, the AGM venue. I hope you will come to our annual meeting and indeed stay at Forest Pines: I am sure you will enjoy the experience this year.

Best wishes for the remainder of the season.

Kevin Wilbur
Chairman

Chief Executive's Update

The Future

I was scheduled to present to Council on the findings of the nationwide meetings that were held at the back end of 2005 and in January and February of 2006. However, the Council Meeting was unfortunately cut short by the inclement weather of the North West and North. The presentation will now be emailed to Council Members prior to the May Council meeting for debate to take place at that time.

County and District secretaries are requested to forward details of their Treasurer so that payments to their accounts can be expedited more quickly

Competitions

Mike continues to keep you up to date with his weekly / monthly Competition Circulars. We are now reaching the busy time of the season when we will be preparing for all the Cup Finals. Attached to this Newsletter is a diary of Finals that have been confirmed so far. At the time of going to print the 'Trophy' final will be between Liverpool and Swansea.

Competition entry forms for season 2006-2007 are now being distributed, so please action them in good time so that we are not put in a position where we have to deny entry to a school / college / district or county on the grounds of late entry. The attached entry form can be photo copied and sent to schools in your district for their use.

Coaching and International Selection

We are at the early stages of supporting a new PUMA initiative to start up the members club "PUMA FC". For those of you that can remember this coaching initiative will be a replacement for the old AFCAT system. There will be more information on this new club after Easter, but in the meantime ESFA have agreed to support the venture. This will NOT be an opportunity to take FA Coaching Awards, but will be open to membership to improve their coaching skills, especially in the youth area.

May I also remind everyone that we are still running the Bursary Scheme where we will pay 75% of teachers' costs in attending FA Coaching / Sports Therapists courses? There is a limited budget so we operate a first come first served policy. All teachers taking advantage of this scheme are placed on a national register and are expected to support schools' football once they are qualified.

So far this season the International selectors can be pleased with their work. Having put on a very pleasing performance against Australia in their first match together, the under 18s have followed up with 2 great performances. A 3-0 Centenary Shield win against Northern Ireland at Glenavon F.C. was followed last weekend with an impressive 2-1 win against Cambridge University's full Varsity team in Cambridge. The team is proving to be a great bunch of lads and a credit to their country. The team management has nothing but praise for their performance both on and off the field. We wish them luck over the next 10 days with centenary shield matches against Scotland at Plymouth Argyle F.C. and the Republic of Ireland at Crawley Town F.C. We are hoping for a 5,000 sell out crowd at Crawley especially as the Team Manager, Mr Pete Chisholm, is the local District secretary and will be retiring from his international post after this match.

Although Mr Dave Burns was selected by Council to take over the Sports Therapist role for the International Team at the end of the season he has unfortunately been unable to negotiate sufficient time away from his school to be able to accept the invitation. However, I am delighted to announce that the current Sports Therapist, Mr Mike Hewitt, has agreed to continue for at least one further year.

Primary

Members of the Primary Committee are gearing themselves for another June assault of Keele for the Sainsbury's Competition Finals. Thanks to the kind auspices of PUMA our kit sponsor, all the members of the Committee will be able to wear their brand new PUMA tracksuits (better than the blazer and tie of last year in the 80 degrees of the day)

Martin Duffield and I are heavily in negotiations with Sainsbury's to try and get an extension of their contract when it ends in June.

Attached to this Newsletter is a duplicate of the recent Primary Schools' Questionnaire. If you haven't already completed it perhaps you could do so (on line if you so wish)

Promotion & Development

One of the first overwhelming responses from the nationwide series of meetings was that the ESFA do not communicate with the schools within our Association. To try to rectify that we now have our 8 page Kicks magazine which is sent to all 26,000 schools in England. Many thanks to California Raisins and our Award Scheme for financing this project.

We have also recently had articles published in "Sport & PE" magazine and in "School Sport" magazine.

Have a look on our web site www.esfa.co.uk and you'll be surprised at the range of saleable items that are now available. And you can pay on line as well.

Rules & Referees

The annual look at our rules and competition structure has commenced and Steve Abson and David Lailey continue to amend and correct. Not a bad achievement as we have only been in existence for 102 years!!

The big talking point within the referees circuit is the new season's registration and the gaining (or not) of the CRB certificate and completion of Child Protection Modules. The debate continues to rage within the FA and the Counties. I will bring more information to you in the May Newsletter, but suffice to say that it looks as though no CRB checked referees may be allowed to register but be made unavailable for youth matches.

Festivals

You will all be aware that we have had to reluctantly cancel this year's under 18 Festival (ex Pakefield, planned for Keel). The main problem was that it was too expensive for the counties to commit themselves. Dave Woollaston has written to all the County secretaries to explain the cancellation. Please have no doubts that your Council continue to support the under 18 Festival and are already talking about the alternatives for 2007.

The Isle of Wight Festival has been well organized by Gerry Smith and once again we must thank PUMA for providing the balls for this Festival. The PFA will also continue to support us on the Island.

Unfortunately the Isle of Wight Festival and all the other planned Festivals, Durham, North Tyneside and Jersey are all scheduled for the same week over the Easter holidays. This could not be avoided as this was the only week where the majority of schools were on Easter holidays. Think of our Chairman and his tour of England (suggestions are that a helicopter should be hired to get him around!!)

Goalposts (repeat)

Schools in your area are able to get a grant from the Football Foundation for the replacement of illegal or unsafe goalposts. The FA County Football Associations are coordinating this procedure and should be contacted in the first instance. There is no cap on the number of goals that can be replaced. If you need to 'change them'.

Long Service Awards

Long Service Awards are being prepared and will be presented shortly.

Please do not forget our sponsors:

• Under 11 - Sainsbury's
• Under 13- Coca Cola
• Under 15 Trophy-NUT
• Under 16 Individual boys and girls schools cups - RAF
• Under 16/18 Inter County - FA Premier League
• Under 16 Girls County - NUT
• Award Scheme - California Raisins
• Photography - RWT Photography
• International Kit Sponsor - PUMA
• Uniforms - Fallen Hero
• Festivals - The PFA
• School Football Strips - The Soccer Co
• Trophies and Festivals - Linakers

Insurance (repeat)

We have changed our insurers, but the details of our policies are the same as before. If you have any queries on insurance please contact Malcolm Alexander at Linaker, Sport & Leisure Division on 0117962 5888. In particular they are producing some very competitive rates for Public Liability cover. However, all affiliated associations come under our national policy for third party liability so long as they are acting as part of the ESFA. This includes the hosting of your annual or regular meetings held where public liability is passed onto you. If you require a copy of the Liability Certificate (now being asked for by local Councils / Schools etc) please contact Dawn in the office.

The Annual General Meeting

Further to the Chairman's words on the 2006 AGM:

Please consider coming to the AGM even if you do not want to stay in the AGM hotel. The Chairman, in the next Newsletter, will outline a number of cheaper B&B options for you. It is most important that we have a good turn out this year, especially as there is so much going on in the field of education and sport.

Excellence Programme

This is a reminder to District and County Associations (and schools where appropriate) that if they enter into an agreement to play against Premier League Academy or Football League Centre of Excellence age group teams, both teams require sanction to play non-affiliated football. The ESFA affiliated team needs clearance from here in the office and the Academy/ Excellence team from their respective League HQs. Only Year 6 (under 11) and above are allowed to play 11 a-side football. If you wish to continue with playing under age children you may well find insurance invalid or in the worst case the subject of a court hearing if a parent wishes to take out a litigation case.

Adults other than Teachers (AOTTs)

District and County Secretaries are reminded that ESFA regulations only allow teams to be supervised by a fully qualified teacher working in the Education Sector or someone who is registered with ESFA as an AOTT. AOTT registration is currently only valid for one year; therefore you must re-register your AOTTs on an annual basis. The Association Child Protection Officer and I will be meeting with the Media Group (who administer our CRB checks for us) and their specialist Social Worker within the next few weeks to determine if the policy set out is still the best way forward.

NOTICE BOARD

1. Funding Opportunities for schools and associations (kit etc.). This is available via The Football Foundation at www.footballfoundation.org.uk
2. Funding Opportunities for large projects e.g. improving changing rooms, drainage work etc. are available via your Local Football Partnership group at your County F.A.
3. England (under 18) 2-2 v Australia Schools, 3-0 v Northern Irish Schools' FA and 2-0 v Scottish Schools' FA
4. England under 18 Squad beat a strong Cambridge University team 2-1 in Cambridge with goals from Karanjit Aujla and Shaun Taylor.
5. England under 18 v Republic of Ireland under 18 at Broadfields Stadium, Crawley Town FC on 31st March 2006. Details in the Handbook