ESBFL – Reminder for Member Clubs.

ESSEX AND SUFFOLK BORDER FOOTBALL LEAGUE SEASON 2021/2 CLUB INFORMATION

August 2021

Great news that the season is starting again on Saturday.  It does feel more promising this season and let’s hope we manage to get to a successful conclusion next April or May!

I am sending this long and pretty detailed information sheet to you to try and help you and the league to be more efficient and receive less fines!!  It is long and detailed but is really in your clubs’ interests that you read it and follow the instructions/information contained within it.  It is not exhaustive and, for instance, does not cover flags, refreshments, assistant referees, match balls and so on (these are in Rule 20).

It is not intended to replace the handbook or the rules but designed to complement it.  The rules of the competition override everything else so where possible I have referenced them in this document.  If you don’t start until later in the season these notes will still be relevant both now and when you start the season.  They will be posted on the website as well on the documents page here Essex & Suffolk Border Football League Documents | Essex & Suffolk Border Football League (esblfootball.com)

Remember you will receive a fine where applicable for non-compliance with the relevant rules (the fines tariff page in the handbook is a good place to see what you may be fined for – it is on Page 120 of the 2020/21 handbook).  We were lenient with issuing fines last year but we will be implementing them more rigidly this season so please be warned!

CODE OF CONDUCT

Clubs within the Essex & Suffolk Border Football League have agreed to sign up to the Football Association Respect Programme. It is therefore the responsibility of all members of our clubs and officials on our league to comply with the Code of Conduct which can be found at Appendix 2 of the league hand book.  Please can clubs remind all people involved with your club of this and yours and their responsibilities.  The league will be monitoring club discipline and may call clubs in with a poor disciplinary record.

REGISTRATIONS (broadly covered in Rule 18) Issues?? Talk to Alison Stanford on 01255433737 or 07375394773 – it may be necessary to involve ECFA as well

We had hoped that the WGS system would be up and running smoothly for everyone this year.  At least the long waiting times we experienced last year are a thing of the past but sadly there have been a number of issues clubs have come up against.  Most teams were able to get the minimum number of players registered in time and most of you did it without any difficulties but there were some.  I had recommended that clubs book themselves onto one of the FA webinars about the new system and I know that some of you have.  There are still opportunities and here is the link again: https://www.thefa.com/-/media/cfa/amateurfa/files/2-dattrainingdateswithlinks-1.ashx?la=en

There is guidance which can be found here Essex & Suffolk Border Football League “WGS” – PLAYER REGISTRATION – GUIDANCE | Essex & Suffolk Border Football League (esblfootball.com) and a help page (which is pretty good for basic problems) which is here Support : Grassroots Technology (thefa.com) If you are due to play and have not been able to sign the players needed due to technical difficulties please talk to me (or ECFA) without any delay.

You cannot now register players without providing an email and an up-to-date photograph.  Players themselves need to have a log in for their record and update personal details as needed. At the moment clubs are able to update some of the details but not all, but I believe the move is to get the player to do it themselves.

FANs and duplicate FANs continue to be an enormous problem.  The system (usually) gives me a warning if the player is a duplicate and I am also aware if a new FAN has been created for a player.  As I have already said, it is only in exceptional circumstances that you should create a new FAN.  I can look on the system at previous years registrations and you should be able to do this for your teams and see if there is one in existence.  Where there is more than one you will need to contact ECFA (as the rejection message states) for them to look at it and determine which is the correct record.  They will delete the other(s).  I have, exceptionally, registered a few players, where clubs were having particular issues which were not being resolved, with off line consent and duplicate FANs. You MUST make sure you have evidence of that consent before submitting the registration (perhaps an email from the player).  As stated, this is exceptional and will not be extended into the season or next season.

“SIGNINGS ON THE DAY” (broadly covered in Rule 18)

Any players signed on correctly up to the Thursday (before a Saturday match) will be registered to play for the Saturday.  The request always comes through with a date and time sent by clubs.  Should you want to register a player after this time you will need to sign them “on the day”.  You are only able to do this for a further 2 players (per team).  There is no form, you need to email myself (on esblsec@icloud.com ), the opposition and the referee with the details of the player, their name, date of birth and FAN if it’s known AT LEAST one hour before kick-off.  Before the player can play again you must register them on WGS in the correct way, and once they are registered you may need to go back and add them to your team on full time.  Remember it may take some time for the player to respond to the on line consent so do not delay in processing their registration.

TRANSFERS (broadly covered in Rule 18)

Transfers are also done entirely via the WGS.  My advice (and out of courtesy) is for you to speak (maybe even pick up a phone!) with the club you want to transfer to player from to agree and ensure there are no outstanding monies owed or other issues.  It should then be logged on WGS.  I will approve and the current club can waive the 7 days notice of approach and I can finalize.  The home club can insist on the full 7 days waiting time, and if the same team approach over another player from the same club the waiting time is 28 days.

TEAMSHEETS (Rule 21) (broadly covered in Rule 18)

Team Sheets are still required to be completed and must be posted as soon as possible after the (Saturday) game (to Mick Willmore, 9a, Young Close, Clacton on Sea, Essex CO16 8UQ) to be received no later than the following Thursday.  This is the only documentation we need as a hard copy and I would advise that someone from the team is designated to post them straight after the match.  If you live locally to Mick you can drop them in.

You must also log your team onto the Full-Time system by the Tuesday after the (Saturday) game.  You need to log sin bins, and cards on full time as well.  And you must record a mark for the referee with an explanation for a low mark.  Guidance on marking the referee is in the handbook at appendix 3.  If you have signed someone on the day and they are not yet registered please remember to go back and add the player to your team.

FIXTURES (Rule 20) Issues?? Call Mick Willmore on 01255433737 or 07975871230

You will recall that you completed an information sheet at the start of the season giving, amongst other things, dates you couldn’t play at home because of ground issues, or dates the team would struggle to get a team because of social events.  All this information is logged into the system along with where there are ground shares and other more senior teams playing etc.  It is a huge piece of work which needs to be done before the system can determine the fixtures.  It is done like this to avoid clashes of fixtures dates and to try and ensure fixtures are spaced evenly and rotated home and away.  This often goes out of the window because so many teams are unable to start their home season until the first, second or third week in September thus home and away fixtures may be bunched.  Also, this year the more senior leagues (Essex Senior League and Thurlow Nunn League) seem to have bunched their fixtures in blocks of home or away and it has been harder for us to arrange ours.  I can only apologise for this – at least we are playing football!!

The fixtures are run for the whole season although we only release them a month at a time so we can accommodate county cups, our own cups, previously postponed fixtures and any other issues arising.  So, although you are unable to see them, they are there waiting to be released.

Although we would always take account of clashes with senior clubs and county cup competitions (tricky when they are not published until mid-August) we are not obliged to arrange fixtures around clubs social lives and we do have the right to make them when we want (Rule 20B).  We do of course want to work with clubs and do try to accommodate reasonable requests.  Even having asked all clubs and logged the information, as soon as fixtures are released, I guarantee we receive a number of calls.  Obviously, if the change is simple, we will usually be able to make it.  But very few are simple – reversing a fixture may not only involve the 2 teams, but there may be a reserves game leading to a pitch clash and a further change required there.

So, you need to know that we will not be making fixture changes from the now onwards unless they are due to our error or easy to resolve and of benefit to the league and the clubs.  You may want to be aware of Rule 20B which states, “Clubs may mutually agree to bring forward a Competition match with the consent of the Fixtures Secretary”.  So you are able to bring the date of a fixture forward if Mick agrees.  

There are some clubs sharing pitches and we try to ensure availability where we are not able to do this you may be required to source a pitch for a game.  This will only happen exceptionally.  We may make a double kick off (so one team playing at 12:30 the other at 3) but cannot think of any circumstances where we would arrange a double header ie the same team playing twice in one day.

FULL TIME PERMISSIONS  Issues??  Contact Alison Stanford on 01255433737 or 07375394773

The information sheet you completed also asked for information in relation to the automated full-time notifications and the text messaging.  Whilst I am not able to add people into club or team roles for you, I am able to change the person who is your primary contact (the system has a default which does not always coincide with your choice of primary contact) and who receive the full-time messages for results. I have been through the sheets and looked at all the teams starting on Saturday and where there were issues, I have emailed you individually about this.  There can only be one primary contact per team as that is the person named on the emails to contact or be contacted regarding a fixture.  Two people can receive the text messages and again, as long as they have the correct record on WGS they will be pulled through into full time and I can add them.  I will go through the lower divisions before you start as well.

It is clubs who control the information regarding club and team officials and therefore you MUST ensure the right people are in the right place for me to be able to add them.  The most common issue here is in relation to club roles as oppose to team roles.  In order to enable the primary contact or the text messaging, people must have a team role.

I know this is all a lot for you to take in, but it is important that we all try and get it right.  I wish you all a great playing season for 2021-22.  If you are not sure about anything please call or email and ask.

Alison Stanford

ESBL Secretary