League Statement  -  10 April 2020

The League’s Management Committee met last night via a video conference, in order to decide an
agreed way to resolve the uncompleted 2019-20 season.

The FA suspended and then brought to an end the 2019-20 season for all grassroots leagues on
26th March and told all Step 3 to 7 leagues of the National League System (NLS) that all their
results were to be expunged, and their club’s seasons would be null and void.

Leagues below the NLS, were given the following options to conclude their seasons:
1. Competitions are brought to an immediate end with results expunged (i.e. without promotion or
relegation occurring),
2. League positions and promotions and relegation are resolved by a points per game (PPG)
calculation.

The League decided against making an early snap decision in considering the two options, but
chose to allow a short period of time to pass before making probably the single most important
decision that the Committee has had to make in most League Officer’s memories. As a result, it
was also deemed worthwhile to consider and reflect upon the reactions from the wider football
community to the FA's decisions to shutdown and then abandon the current season.
 

After discussion, the Committee decided by an majority vote for option 2, and thereby for the hard
work of clubs, their officials, managers/coaches and players, to be recognised with the setting of
final division tables. Whilst we appreciate that the use of PPG to determine the season’s records is
by no means a perfect system, we believe that it is a vastly superior option than merely expunging
the records of this weather affected season, where so much effort has gone into completing at
least two thirds of the season.

We trust that by implementing this option, in the below manner, that we will mitigate the concerns
of individual clubs who may have preferred to have just written off the season.

The agreed proposal was for:
1) Tables will be set as final positions using PPG (and be recorded for historical records as thus)
2) The top two teams in each division will be crowned as Divisional Winners and Runners-Up
respectively, and will be promoted automatically
3) There will be no automatic relegation
4) Division One will expand from 12 teams to 14 teams to cater for 2) and 3)
5) We will take the FA's advise to use Rule 2.L if appropriate to flexibly rearrange the Constitution
of the League at the AGM, in order to permit teams to move to divisions suitable for their relative
strength for the 2020-21 season.

We hope to return to playing the beautiful game in the near future, and to kick-off the 2020-21
season as soon as is safe to do so.

Stay safe and well.

Jeff Willerton
League Secretary
 

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE:

16th March:-

The FA are recommending that all grassroots football is suspended until further notice. 

We are therefore adhering to this and as a result ALL SDFL fixtures are suspended.

There is no suggestion of a possible return date, so we have to wait and see.

We do not know what happens next in terms of league tables or the season ending, etc, this is unprecedented and we will have discuss any progression with the GFA, and in time, the member clubs.

13th March - We await instruction from the FA/GFA
... at the moment, 14th March fixtures go ahead as planned.

Statement 12th March: We expect the FA (and/or the GFA) to inform and instruct us of any restrictions in the playing schedule. In the event that they “abandon” the season, we will be in an unknown situation and will not be able to advise how we proceed until directed to do so. No titles or promotion/relegation will be awarded until the FA/GFA direct us accordingly.

12th March:

TONIGHT'S SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING HAS BEEN CANCELLED
Clubs will be contacted this evening and will be able to vote upon the end-of-season proposals that were to be put tonight via an email response.

Please make sure that your attendees are informed of this asap
 

12-Mar: Please note the recent handbook changes:

* Trident Secretary: Corrected mobile number - 07817286926
* New Abbeymead Rovers Secretary: Jack Doyle, mob 07468461984, email: jackd1001@gmail.com

* Cam Everside Wanderers - have moved (from 21-March) to King George V Playing Fields, Nympsfield, GL10 3UP

A reminder of the Player Registration process (see handbook p.35):

FORMS

Keith Sparrow sent all Clubs a copy of the Registration Sheets in operation this season. Please use these to sign your 2019-20 players on.

For players that are new (or were not registered last season), you must use a Registration Form that can be downloaded and printed off from the "Forms" tab.
 

SUBMISSION TO THE LEAGUE ON WGS

A player is registered and permitted to play in a Competition match if the registration of the player was submitted on WGS prior to the Competition match.

The registration sheet/form must be received by the Registrations Secretary prior to, or within 72 hours of the Player playing in a Competition Match. 

* Individual player photo ID must be uploaded to the registration record on WGS for each registered player. Non-acceptable photo ID will result in the registration being rejected or required to be replaced.