ESBFL – FIXTURES procedure and issues!

We are one month into the full season with the Premier Division and Division One having played for 4 weeks.

At the start of the season all teams received a form asking if there are dates when you might find it tricky to fulfil a fixture.

The wording on the form says:

It is unlikely that teams will be permitted to have “closed” dates or dates where no fixtures will be allocated.

However, if there are there any known dates throughout the season you would prefer not to have a game or can only have a home / away fixture please note it here.

Please note that the league is not obligated to agree”.

Already we are getting requests for teams to have additional Saturdays / weekends free which were NOT included on the forms and often with little notice.

I remind you that we are not obligated to agree.

Arranging the fixtures around county and league cup fixtures is a hard enough job.

We had six of our Premier teams unable to play home games until September as well as other divisions not being able to play until mid or late September and one club not able to host home games until October!

Please note that changing one fixture for one team almost always has a knock on effect for several other fixtures, not to mention the work it causes.

So please DO NOT ASK FOR FREE SATURDAYS.