Season 20-21

To All Club Chairmen, Club Secretaries and Club Managers

At the end of April you will recall my email and our proposals for continuing Junior football within the KDFL for 2020-21.
It is appropriate for me now to make an update and I hope the following details will be of some help to you all.

The AGM will not take place on June 9th as I anticipated, but is set for the date already booked and advised of 25th August at Imber Court. In the event August is still too early to commence the proper administration of the League I would ask that you take
note of September 22nd as the next full meeting when the AGM can take place, again at Imber Court. The League's organisation remains dependent on the Government's decision over contact sport and we are all aware of that. However in the interim the League will put in place as much ground work as is possible before the start date so that we are ready for football.

To this end I would appreciate a decision from all Clubs concerning your membership of the KDFL for the forthcoming season. Many of you have already signed up, and there are now four new member applications to add to our list. At this stage a simple email is sufficient to confirm your position. With regard to League entry fees for 2020-21 although these cannot be cancelled there will not be the usual time limit for payment. We do not expect Clubs to find funds until the season is underway, and there will be no pressure from us to make the start up financially difficult for any of our members.

Affiliating to your chosen County can now be done as from June1st. This is still a key requirement of the FA and the sooner you do this the better.
The good news is Surrey FA have cancelled all affiliation fees for Junior football, and they are providing free entry for their cup competitions this forthcoming season.
Therefore there is every reason to get this paperwork out of the way now. Unfortunately I don't know the entry requirements of other FA officiating bodies.
Please let the League know your County Affiliation number at the first opportunity.

For Clubs who do not have access to private facilities I think it would be in your interests to start talking with local Councils over pitch availability. Obviously at this point you cannot specify which pitch dates you will want, but at least let them know you intend to firm up your booking as soon as football gets the go ahead.
Even though this is still early days It would be helpful if you can keep on top of this through the summer.

The intention to play out the end of last season with appropriate Cup Finals and Division Winners remains as a core principle for our restart. It is estimated by Maurice Gilley that most of these fixtures can be completed within a four week period with Cup Finals being arranged as the season progresses.
Everything obviously hinges on how quickly we can get going.

Please contact me if you have any queries or require more information for your Club. I will provide updates as and when available.

I hope you are all keeping safe.

yours in sport




Mike Hallett