This update is for all YEL club officials and team managers and covers
Praise and pride!
U7s/U8s – Deadline for October start
How things work in the YEL – A day to day managers guide
League fees – unpaid league fees will result in immediate suspension U10 Football – ball size
Update on referees – Process managers need to adhere to
Team sheet/ID Sheet – SUSPENSION
Latest COVID-19 guidance/update
Praise and Pride!
Before we get into the main information, I would just like to make a comment about the behaviour at the delayed cup finals that have taken place over the last two weekends. I walked round and observed most of the 40 competitions that took place and I would say the standard of coaching and behaviour from the vast majority of managers, parents and players was exemplary. There were the odd examples of managers screaming at heir players and parents getting way too excited and wanting ‘kick each ball’ for the players but there was a marked improvement. If you are one of those coaches who only gave positive and encouraging comments to your players and put smiles on their faces and allowed them to play their game, their way – Thank you! You are the future of youth football. If you are one of the other style of coaches, this is not a message to tell you that you’re doing it wrong or to change but to simply have a think about it; try it; ask the players which they respond to better as it’s their game.
Feel free to share this positive message with your parents and players as this approach definitely brought the best out in the children as I saw some fantastic football being played with freedom and expression, without the fear of being chastised for getting it wrong! Brilliant coaching and support.
New U7s & U8s/Teams who missed the start of the season due to having insufficient players – Deadline for October start
Just a reminder to any teams who missed the start of the season in September due to having insufficient players/new U7s & U8s teams being formed, the deadline to have enough players registered on Whole Game System/enter your team on Scoreline for an October start is 5pm Thursday 24th September. The next window for U7s/U8s joining the league will be the beginning of December for a Jan 2021 start.
How things work in the YEL – A day to day managers guide
For those new managers who are still struggling with procedures, have a read of the ‘Day to Day managers guide.’ This tells you what you need to be doing and when you need to be doing it. It also covers ‘How to complete a Full-Time match report’ with screenshots to guide you through the process. This guide can be found on YELonline.com under the USEFUL INFORMATION section on the home page.
League Fees – Immediate suspension for unpaid league fees st
All league fees were required to be paid by August 31. Any club/team that has not paid the league fees yet, should do so immediately to avoid having fixtures suspended.
The league has recently employed a bookkeeping company to administer the payments. Cactus Bookkeeping are currently processing all the payments made by clubs since the start of the season. They expect to have this completed by the end of September. Scoreline will then be updated and ‘Outstanding’ invoices will be marked ‘paid.’ One problem they have encountered already which is causing delays, is clubs/treasurers not putting a reference on the online/cheque payments. ‘Mr Smedley £384’ means nothing to us. You know who you are and who your club is – we don’t! Please ensure that every payment has an invoice reference on it. Multiple payments can just be the invoice numbers eg 8514/17/19/8523. If you can’t get all of the numbers on the reference (a lot of banks are limited to 18 characters), please forward an email to yel@live.co.uk -with the invoice numbers paid so we can tie things together. Without the invoice references, clubs/teams could be suspended whilst the payments are identified.
Under 10 football
Quick reminder, ALL U10s should still be playing with a size 3 football this season. This change was made by The FA as part of the guidance around heading. It came into force in June 2020. So, to recap, all U10 teams MUST be using a size 3 football
Update on referees
As most are aware, we have not had the Easter and Summer referee courses run this year due to COVID and lockdown. As a result we are around 100 referees down on where we should be. This has meant we have had to work smarter with how we appoint referees. We have been working with clubs and have allowed some to ‘use their own referees.’ This has helped us direct the limited refs available to those clubs that need them. We need co-ordination on this if we are going to allow this short term solution to continue.
- Clubs/teams must notify us in advance that they have a local referee who has agreed to referee their games on a regular basis so we know not to appoint YEL refs to these games (OR we need a schedule of when the club referee is covering a particular club’s games) DO NOT APPOINT YOUR OWN REFEREE WITHOUT NOTIFYING THE LEAGUE AT LEAST SEVEN DAYS IN ADVANCE otherwise we could end up wasting a valuable resource by appointing a league ref to a game that is already covered.
- Seven days in advance – let the YEL Office know if you have your own ref for the following weekend.
- Mon/Tues/Wed prior to the game – DO NOT APPOINT YOUR OWN REF without contacting the YEL Office first as you may have a YEL referee appointed which MUST take precedence over your referee. YEL will appoint refs to games up until Wednesday evening. You must accept this YEL referee appointment. If, by Thursday, your Full-Time referee status changes from ‘TBC’ to ‘None’, you can appoint your own referee who you may have on standby.
- Basically, if you are organised well in advance, ie seven or more days before the game, you will be doing yourselves and the league a big favour. If you are not so organised and try and find your own ref and do not liaise with the league on a Mon/Tues/Wed prior to the game, you will not be doing anyone any favours and will simply cause confusion and problems all round.
Team sheets/ID sheets – SUSPENSION
Due to the current increase in COVID-19 cases being reported, we have taken the decision to SUSPEND THE USE OF TEAM SHEETS AND ID CARD CHECKS. This will be reviewed at the end of the Winter season. This means that you do not need to show your ID cards to the opposition or give a team sheet to the referee on match day. This decision has been taken to minimise the shared ‘touch surfaces’ on match day. We feel, given the current worsening state of the pandemic, that it is more important to take a safety first approach. Be aware that spot checks will be carried out by YEL staff and YEL Respect Field Officers. Any team found to be playing an unauthorised player will be liable to a maximum £100 fine.
Latest COVID-19 Update
Thankfully, at this stage, there have been no new pronouncements by the government since last week, citing grassroots sport as one of the main spreaders of COVID. Quick reminder to team mangers – keep the players following the guidance – socially distance when not in match play; keep sanitising equipment regularly; keep the players using hand sanitiser from their own labelled bottles; keep the players self monitoring and stay away from training and matches if displaying any of the symptoms and contact the NHS.
Massive thanks to all the COVID-19 Coordinators who are monitoring their own club’s procedures and administering their policies.
Keep smiling; keep enjoying football and….most importantly… keep safe.
Rob Harwood CEO
YEL OFFICE