Fixture Congestion

[Quiet Man]

Just taken a look at a post on Facebook by Dave Deacon and taking a look at the South Western League table for the season 1996/97, I noticed that there were only 16 teams in the league. Compare that to the South West Peninsula League Premier Division this year and there are 20 clubs. Turning this into league games, the teams back then only had to play 30 games a season, whereas now they have to play 38. An extra 8 league games a season is a lot to squeeze in, especially given the weather that we have had this year. 

Now, I know that you could say that this is just a freak year for weather, but "Global Warming" is a fact, wither you like it or not so we should expect more of the same in years to come. Would it not be better to reduce the size of the leagues, especially as there is a golden opportunity the season after next to do this with as little disruption as possible as the Peninsula Premier is going to be split into a Cornwall League and a Devon League. It would mean fewer Division 1 League clubs stepping up so quality would not be watered down (no disrespect to the Div. 1 clubs intended) and it would give the more successful clubs in the FA cup and Vase a chance to complete their fixtures without the ludicrous situation that they find themselves in now.

Another benefit I feel is that the players would have time to recuperate between games and hopefully not incur so many injuries. 

It is all very well for the FA, in their marble halls, to dictate the size of leagues, but they are not really interested in the trials and tribulations of step 7, 6 and maybe even step 5 and 4 clubs. How many FA Premier League games are called off due to a bad pitch??? Not many, if any.

I admire the work that the South West Peninsula League secretary does, and it must surely have been a real headache for him this season so I take my hat off to him. Let us think about this sensibly and tell the FA that it is football clubs at grass roots level that make the game what it is. Let common sense prevail.