ESFA Newsletter Friday 6th July 2007
Message From The Chairman Mr. Gerry Smith
Chairman Gerry Smith
Chairman Gerry Smith
Becoming Chairman of the ESFA has arrived earlier than I expected. However, with the full support of my Head teacher and Council colleagues I am confident that I will be able to continue building upon and developing the opportunities for boys and girls to experience football in schools. I am extremely proud to represent you and can assure you that I will act on your behalf with total commitment over the next 12 months.
My first official function on taking the ‘Chain’ from Nigel was to present the Long Service Awards at our southern luncheon at White Hart Lane. The chief Executive and I, as life long supporters, were in our element and as you can see from the picture enjoyed being at the home of Tottenham Hotspur. I did suggest to John Read that all our finals could take place at White Hart Lane in 2008. I suspect we will have a battle with Mike Spinks who will inevitably try to move us to Carrow Road! On a serious note I was pleased and humbled to be in the presence of our 5 Forty and 2 Fifty Year Award recipients. Over 300 years of supporting schools’ football takes some beating. All the recipients thoroughly enjoyed the occasion and reminisced about their favourite moments in Schools football.
In my year as Chairman I will endeavour to set in motion the number of agreements that came out of the AGM on 23 June 2007. Although I was very pleased to see over a 100 familiar faces at the AGM I was somewhat concerned to see so few newcomers. Younger teachers are the life blood of this association and we must ALL do our utmost to encourage a new generation to become team managers or administrators.
I am well aware that two of my regions are short of Council members and that the problem will only get worse next year when another two members of Council retire. New blood is essential and I would urge you all to look at the situation. If Council Members are not replaced other volunteers need to be appointed, who would assist the remaining Council member in his/her duties. Women teachers would also be welcome as prospective Council members. Many female coaches are now taking teams and should be encouraged to come onto Council.
Finally I would like to thank you for all your efforts throughout the past season. Your help, support and encouragement are greatly appreciated by my Council colleagues and me. Without your voluntary efforts this Association would not be as strong as it is. I trust that you will have a deserved break this summer and look forward to seeing many of you in the new season 2007-2008.
Gerry Smith.
Chairman
Chief Executive’s Update
Affiliations
We are now into the second week of July (when you read this) and there are still a number of associations who have failed to return their affiliation forms. If you fall into that category please react without further delay. New forms are enclosed with this Newsletter just in case the first forms have been lost in the post.
Council
The staff and I welcome Gerry as our new Chairman and look forward to the next 12 months working for him. Apart from both of us being Tottenham fans (watch out Arsenal next season, we are gunning for at least 4th place) Gerry and I went to college together all those years ago. Apart from the loss of hair and expanding waist lines we still have our love for football and will work tirelessly to deliver the game to our schoolboys and girls.
One pressing problem for both of us is the state of Council – not their wellbeing, but their lack of numbers. It was with great sadness to see David Lailey depart after so many years of devoted national service and it will be even more depressing when we loose 4 more stalwarts of Council over the next 2 years.
The Chairman has instructed me to set up a working group of Council and Association members to look into the whole position and make up of Council, but in the meantime we MUST have some help, especially from the South and South East of the country. Stuart Inger and Phil Harding will be on their own next season running two of the largest regions in the country. If you are reading this and have any interest in the continuation of schools’ football in Areas F and H please give me a call to discuss coming onto Council. You might never be able to achieve the level of commitment that Alan Ball and David Lailey have given to us, but there is definitely a more minimal role that you can play even if that is only attendance at 6 weekend meetings a year. Hopefully you are still a youngish teacher and still involved with District or County teams and could spare just that minimal commitment. Please give it a thought and get back to me soonest.
Competitions
We will again be running the full portfolio of competitions despite the loss of some sponsorship finance. This has meant that the Trustees have had to make some difficult decisions as to the level of support for those competitions.
Since the last Newsletter we have organised 2 very successful competition finals at the ‘David Beckham Academy’ and Keele University. The organisation of both these venues was made very difficult by the lateness of the sponsorship agreement with EON for the under 12 indoor competition and by the weather on the day of the under 11 Primary Finals. The fact that both competition finals passed off without any problem was due to the superb support of the Competitions Department and associated Council and Association Members. Thank you all for your help.
The web site continues to improve and shows all the results from last season. We are continually improving the site so if you haven’t had a look recently, please do so : www.esfa.co.uk
Coaching and International Selection
The 2007-2008 season starts in earnest with the annual high level coaching course at Keele University in August. 64 boys selected from their counties will be put through their paces by Tony Martin, the International Manager, and his team of highly qualified schoolteacher coaches.
There follows a series of county trials and matches before we select 4 regional sides to play in match competition over the weekend 10/11 November [Midlands v North at Holmes Park, Leicester on the Saturday and South East v South West on the Sunday (venue to be decided). The final 32 will be selected for training at Lilleshall at the beginning of December and January.
The international season will start with a match against the visiting Australian Schools at the end of January. A winter warm up trip in the February half term is scheduled for Villareal in Spain. We shall then play 4 Centenary Shield matches against the 2 Irelands, Wales and Scotland. Hopefully an away international and a home friendly (perhaps at Wembley?) are still to be organised.
Primary
The pilot introduction of fun days for years 3 and 4 proved to be very popular and successful. More will be planned for next season. Similarly, the festivals for years 5 and 6 girls District Association teams went down well and will be expanded next season.
Promotion & Development
Members reaching their 40 years and 50 years of service to the ESFA were rewarded with presentations and a formal luncheon at Leeds United and Tottenham Hotspur. Many other members reaching the 25 and 10 year points in service were presented with their awards locally.
I understand that a number of Associations were upset by the ‘retrospective policy’ governing the award of the 10 and 25 years service. On the introduction of this awards scheme Council decided that if the 10 and 25 year awards were to be open the scheme would be far too expensive for us to control on our limited budget. Therefore it was decided that for these two awards only, they would have to be nominated in the year that the 10 or 25 year award became possible. Others, presented in retrospect (i.e. between 11 and 19 years and between 26 and 39 years), could be nominated but the nominating Association would be required to pay for the award themselves. This policy must continue if we are not to spend our limited funds on activities outside of schools’ football. This in no way diminishes the respect that the ESFA Council has for the nominees for all the work that they are doing or have been doing in schools’ football.
Mixed Football
The Football Association, under pressure from the Government, has agreed to investigate the age restrictions to mixed football currently in force in this country. Any junior league which has players up to the age of 14 and above the age of 11 and within the current age group banding (no more than 2 years) may apply to their County FA for permission to play up to 4 girls in any one team for the season 2007-2008 only. If there are a number of leagues in each county applying for this dispensation, the County FA may restrict the number of Leagues given this dispensation. Boys are still restricted to boys’ leagues and may not play in girls’ football.
The Football Association will:
- Monitor the number of girls who actually register and play for boys’ teams.
- Monitor the number of girls’ teams withdrawing from girls only leagues.
- Compare the situation with other European countries
- Debate the results with the Women's Committee, development Committee and the League sanctions Committee before putting recommendations before Council in June 2008.
All of the above does NOT apply to SCHOOLS' FOOTBALL where current regulations remain extant.
Goalposts
Schools may still apply to the Football Foundation for replacement goals if they are needed. Application is through the County FA.
Insurance
We are at the moment renewing our insurance cover and will have a full and comprehensive document printed in the Handbook 2007-2008.
The Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting working group will meet again to discuss the ideas that have been put forward for the organisation of any future AGMs.
In hindsight the Trafford Suite at Manchester United was perhaps not the most appropriate venue, but it was chosen because Council thought that membership would enjoy the atmosphere of meeting at one of the greatest club grounds in the world. Next year, in Stafford, we will try to accommodate everyone’s wishes so please if you have any thoughts on the layout and organisation and have any ideas to attract more members to the meeting, please drop me a line (either by email john.read@schoolsfa.com or by post to Stafford.
Excellence Programme
A number of FA managed girls’ Centres of Excellence are being established in the near future. Those of you who run girls’ teams are requested to monitor the situation to ensure that girls are still being allowed to represent their schools. Already a number of associations have reported their concerns that the girls are likely to have to train twice a week and play matches on a Saturday
Adults other than Teachers (AOTTs)
I cannot believe that there are only 31 adults other than teachers running District and/or County teams. We have only had 31 adults registered with us, which is very disappointing. If you use AOTTs please register them with us in Stafford and if you are using non registered adults other than teachers and they are not properly qualified or have undergone a CRB check you are risking a great deal if something goes wrong. It is most likely that any insurance, local or national, will be invalidated if your AOTTs are not registered.
Registration forms can be obtained from the office.
Child Protection / Child Welfare
There are a number of changes about to hit the streets including new government legislation. Martin Duffield, our National Child Protection Officer, and I have regular meetings with the specialist FA and Social staff and are preparing an advisory document that will be available after the next Council Meeting.
New Partners
Since the last Newsletter we have entered into 2 new agreements with:
This company have set up a clearing house for academic and sporting scholarships to the United States of America. For further details please see www.pass4.co.uk.
Attached to this letter are details of the arrangement we have made with Recycle4Kit.
Please support these two new ventures by publicizing their activities where you can.
Finally
If you are in Area F or H and even have the slightest thought about becoming a Council Member – give me a call.
- Check the credentials of all the AOTTs involved in your Associations – they must all be registered, CRB checked and qualified to Level 2 if actually coaching a team unsupervised.
- Keep a watching brief on the introduction of girls’ Centres of Excellence
- Make this an enjoyable season
- look after player discipline.
- ensure parental behaviour is acceptable.
- Best wishes for a successful 2007-2008 and keep your fingers crossed that we will all meet at Wembley in June 2008.
