FC Azzurri

FC Azzurri have confirmed their resignation from the Alliance League with immediate effect

All remaining fixtures involving this team are therefore cancelled - though James may be able to rearrange some aspects of the Premier Division scheduled fixtures for the dates when they were due to play

Their playing record to date will be expunged and the Premier Division table will be restated in due course

Didn't want the 3 points it took us 2 Sunday's to earn this month anyway.

We have also lost six points from wins against Tomlin's All Stars and now Azzurri.

Shame so close to the end of the season

Same old Premier Division season after season, started with 10 and going to finish with eight.

We've had our fair share of stick for being placed in Division Two last year but we lost 12 games in a row in the Premier League and paid our fines when it would have been easier to fold.

12-14 team prem next season??

phil_brown wrote:

12-14 team prem next season??

Should be the aim, though I think it always is. Hard when teams drop out. 14 prob too many, the top teams have so many addittional fixtures with the cups (though round robin format could be removed)

Might as well start the speculation now though....

Current 8 teams remain (I'm sure that some won't agree), add in top 3 from Div 1, and Foxes from Div 2.

Also, having just looked at the Prem, well done Fosse. Proof to those who are scared to go in the prem that it can be done.

You cant have 14 teams in the prem. 26 league games plus county cup games, Arthur Moore and Billy Walton and possibly FA Sunday Cup for a few. Ridiculous suggestion. Weather has been kind this year and most teams are on track to finish about right. Imagine another 8 fixtures. We would be playing in mid may with constant midweek games. 10 is about right for the prem.

10 was never going to be enough for the Premiership! Had a bit of time on my hands so just worked out how many games we will have played this season come May.

14 league games.
1 league game played but voided due to Azzurri folding
4 Billy Walton
2 Sunday Premier
2 Arthur Moore
1 Arthur Moore game played but voided due to Tomlin folding
24 total games played.

Our season will have spanned 36 Sunday's by the time we finish the season against Barcabullona.

1 week off at Christmas
1 free week requested

That leaves 10 Sunday's where we haven't had games! Pretty sure we haven't had any cancelled due to the weather either! We could've got to the final of every competition we've been in and still had 5 free Sunday's!

12 teams minimum in all the divisions should be the aim!

Got no work on Jimmy

Spot on mate, even IF the bad weather was to interrupt the season (averaged out from the last few years could have been 4 weeks lost) your numbers fit well.

12 across the board is probably the ideal number.

12 in the prem would be just right if you make the Arthur moore a knockout cup
and think cska's teams to fill it are spot on
after the first couple of games the Arthur moore ends up with to many meaningless fixtures
also the prem could come in a round later in the billy Walton

Sorry guys, I disagree. This is sunday football we are talking about here and realistically everyone likes a free week or 2 every now and then. You will only get chaos at the end of a season if you have 12-14 in the premier. Teams inevitably call games off (not saying that is right) but its just reality. You usually miss 2 for xmas and say 4 for weather, 1 for your free week and if you are succesful in all cup competitions (as we have been) you will run out of sundays. Nobody wants a backlog in April and May and playing often meaningless league games.

Stick LK in the prem if they move across

Barca wrote:

Sorry guys, I disagree. This is sunday football we are talking about here and realistically everyone likes a free week or 2 every now and then. You will only get chaos at the end of a season if you have 12-14 in the premier. Teams inevitably call games off (not saying that is right) but its just reality. You usually miss 2 for xmas and say 4 for weather, 1 for your free week and if you are succesful in all cup competitions (as we have been) you will run out of sundays. Nobody wants a backlog in April and May and playing often meaningless league games.

Yes it's Sunday football but surely that should mean the team should be committed to playing on that day, yes they'll be the odd week that you'll want off, but that's what the free week is there for. Should always expect a game on the Sunday during the season until fixtures are released

I'm just being realistic mate. As an example Fosse contacted me last weekend saying they were struggling to get a team for Easter Sunday. We agreed as also have some away and barely a day after our final players werent keen. Its that sort of thing that happens. In addition you can have county cup postponements that have to be played the week after which has happenned also. I fail to see your argument for squeezing an unrealistic number of games in. You will only succeed in having more problems with postponements, midweek games and teams folding. We enjoy sundays which is why we all do it and have done for 13 years and are fully committed but having a backlog of games suits nobody. I would be amazed having been around local football for a long while if the majority of people said they wanted a game every single sunday possible. Just being realistic.

That sort of emphasises the opposite point too though, we asked to move the game as we only have 1 game remaining and can play it any time over the next however many weeks. As it happens we wish we hadn't bothered, we're now going to have to wait until May to play it, meaning 5 weeks will have passed between our penultimate game against Star & Garter and the season ender against Barca.

12 seems about right but as Barca state, the cup must move to KO rather than pointless group.

gattuso wrote:

Stick LK in the prem if they move across

behave dude, 2nd in Division 4 to AL Prem...that's some promotion even in your noddyland logic

10 teams is fine, I would reduce the AM to a knock-out cup too. 10 only hasn't been enough this year due to 2 teams dropping out.

18 league games plus realistically 6-10 cup games is enough for the season

Barca wrote:

I'm just being realistic mate. As an example Fosse contacted me last weekend saying they were struggling to get a team for Easter Sunday. We agreed as also have some away and barely a day after our final players werent keen. Its that sort of thing that happens. In addition you can have county cup postponements that have to be played the week after which has happenned also. I fail to see your argument for squeezing an unrealistic number of games in. You will only succeed in having more problems with postponements, midweek games and teams folding. We enjoy sundays which is why we all do it and have done for 13 years and are fully committed but having a backlog of games suits nobody. I would be amazed having been around local football for a long while if the majority of people said they wanted a game every single sunday possible. Just being realistic.

Agree with this but it doesn't matter how many teams are in the Prem, the sanctions aren't harsh enough for teams that fold. It's not the league's fault but the players who are signed on and are allowed to fold teams then pay a fine off and sign for someone else. The FA needs to look at it. It just ruins the season for everyone else. We've lost six points and played two pointless fixtures now.

Due to our poor performances in cup competitions this season we've had three weeks without a game. Last season, we played the Billy Walton Cup semi-final two days after our EW Foster Cup final and then ended up playing eight games in three weeks. Add this to the backlog in Saturday fixtures and the majority of our players ended up playing Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Friday and then Saturday and Sunday again which is ridiculous.

The Arthur Moore Cup needs to return to a knockout competition, the group format is simply there to give teams more games which end up being pointless if the group is settled early on. We qualified for the Quarter-Final having played only two games because Tomlin's folded and Seaton didn't play. Some teams in other groups played four games, it doesn't make any sense.

Bring Premier League and Division One teams into the Billy Walton Cup later on in the competition and leave the County cup as it is.

Totally agree with FEAR, these players that allow there club to fold should not be allowed to join a team from the same league for a minimum 12 months. Why do we keep accepting brand new teams that are often full of players who sh*t on there former team mates. They start off in a silly division, win it, aswell a cup or two, then . Bang,fold.

All valid points. Tomlins prove the point above. Everyone thought it would be between them and Star and they had a few encouraging results early but by October had lost a few and werent interested. If they were in div 2 or below as I'm sure they wanted they would be still playing and winning. The league got that right in fairness and I know Morley keeps a database of all players and tries to spot the pothunters but its a difficult task. Hard to ban people though because they may sign a form and never play and hence be punished so difficult where to draw the line. The teams that play constantly over the years and become established clubs are rare and teams like ourselves and GT and many more in fairness deserve massive credit.

Firstly I'm gutted azzurri have folded! Myself and Jules set them up 3 years ago and had a very successful first 2 seasons, unfortunately we both decided at the end of last season we couldn't commit to every Sunday as for me my son had started playing and Jules for other reasons, I stayed on as secretary until Xmas but left completely then as I found i didn't even have the time to do that.

I think Brett deserves credit for trying to continue running the team pretty much on his own since the start of the season, Tomlins forming took a fair few of our players from last season and he had quite a big re-building job to do.

I'm not entirely sure of all the reasons for them folding now but I know it's not something Brett would have done unless he really had no other option as he has put an awful lot of work and effort into the club.

I believe that 10 teams is more than enough for the premiership but you have got to pick the correct 10 teams, maybe not necessary the 10 teams with the best so called players signed on but the 10 teams who have proved they have solid foundations to build upon.

Whether we have a 8, 10 or 12 team prem the difficulty will be which teams.

Finish the season with 8, the bottom two will want to be relegated and god forbid if they request to stay in the prem already been there and lambasted for agreeing with a clubs wishes!!

The top two from one jump up to replace and potentially add the winners of div two as previous years when they have won by some distance.

This will only give 8, so finding more will upset some. If any of the 8 decide at the end of the season to call it a day or more over to another league we cant even easily find 8!! To make it 12 or 14 would be near impossible

Also agree with FEAR with regards to fines, £250 fine for folding a team split between say 35 signed on players (maybe a high number but a struggling side normally signs a similar number if not more) equates to just over £7 fine, even with 3 games left in the season the subs could be more than double this!!!

League can't change this as it is a rule in the standard code of rules from national FA.

Not sure of the solution to be honest unless I can convince national FA to change the rule

Azzuri will reform in the lsl thats the word on the grapevine they have a lot of grievances regarding how they"think" the alliance have treated them.
As for next seasons prem it will be a whole new kettle of fish,with the new cup competition from county fa in the pipeline taking in all four sunday league's prem teams.
Cant see there being any more than 10 sides in next seasons prem.

If that comp gets off the ground it could be 8

CSKA17 wrote:

Also, having just looked at the Prem, well done Fosse. Proof to those who are scared to go in the prem that it can be done.

Agreed. And also Oadby Owls not to mention Magna who have carried on when many wouldn't have

bretty1 wrote:

Totally agree with FEAR, these players that allow there club to fold should not be allowed to join a team from the same league for a minimum 12 months. Why do we keep accepting brand new teams that are often full of players who sh*t on there former team mates. They start off in a silly division, win it, aswell a cup or two, then . Bang,fold.

Many times a new club will join and there will no be no sign of who will play for them, they often come out of the woodwork as the summer progresses and then sign on. Then their mates join them.

FEAR_FUFC wrote:

Barca wrote:

I'm just being realistic mate. As an example Fosse contacted me last weekend saying they were struggling to get a team for Easter Sunday. We agreed as also have some away and barely a day after our final players werent keen. Its that sort of thing that happens. In addition you can have county cup postponements that have to be played the week after which has happenned also. I fail to see your argument for squeezing an unrealistic number of games in. You will only succeed in having more problems with postponements, midweek games and teams folding. We enjoy sundays which is why we all do it and have done for 13 years and are fully committed but having a backlog of games suits nobody. I would be amazed having been around local football for a long while if the majority of people said they wanted a game every single sunday possible. Just being realistic.

Agree with this but it doesn't matter how many teams are in the Prem, the sanctions aren't harsh enough for teams that fold. It's not the league's fault but the players who are signed on and are allowed to fold teams then pay a fine off and sign for someone else. The FA needs to look at it. It just ruins the season for everyone else. We've lost six points and played two pointless fixtures now.

Due to our poor performances in cup competitions this season we've had three weeks without a game. Last season, we played the Billy Walton Cup semi-final two days after our EW Foster Cup final and then ended up playing eight games in three weeks. Add this to the backlog in Saturday fixtures and the majority of our players ended up playing Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Friday and then Saturday and Sunday again which is ridiculous.

The Arthur Moore Cup needs to return to a knockout competition, the group format is simply there to give teams more games which end up being pointless if the group is settled early on. We qualified for the Quarter-Final having played only two games because Tomlin's folded and Seaton didn't play. Some teams in other groups played four games, it doesn't make any sense.

Bring Premier League and Division One teams into the Billy Walton Cup later on in the competition and leave the County cup as it is.

In my opinion I personally don't give much credence to Saturday football where there is a backlog of Sunday fixtures. If a club has a stack of Saturday players, then you know what the likelihood will be come the end of the season

The number of resignations has increased dramatically since the FA set a limit on the fine. The reasons for this were explained to me on a personal basis but they (he) would not accept the feared consequences which came to pass.
The FA knows best!

The Moore Cup is only on a group basis because of the number of Prem teams. If the County proposal gets off the ground, then I expect the format and possibly the number of league cups to change

SAFC_Pothunter wrote:

10 teams is fine, I would reduce the AM to a knock-out cup too. 10 only hasn't been enough this year due to 2 teams dropping out.

18 league games plus realistically 6-10 cup games is enough for the season

Problem is, there always seems to be about 2 teams that drop out every year. So 12 teams, with the Arthur Moore going to straight knockout would be about the same number of fixtures, and build some resiliance against teams dropping out.

Ideally teams wouldn't fold, but the league can't control that (even the people running the teams can't)

Think we've only had 4 resignations this season which is about par for the course?

CSKA17 wrote:

SAFC_Pothunter wrote:

10 teams is fine, I would reduce the AM to a knock-out cup too. 10 only hasn't been enough this year due to 2 teams dropping out.

18 league games plus realistically 6-10 cup games is enough for the season

Problem is, there always seems to be about 2 teams that drop out every year. So 12 teams, with the Arthur Moore going to straight knockout would be about the same number of fixtures, and build some resiliance against teams dropping out.

Ideally teams wouldn't fold, but the league can't control that (even the people running the teams can't)

So setting up to fail!! How can that be the right approach?!

Most resignations are sides that are struggling having been placed in the wrong division... Unfortunately (Pochin and Royal Oak aside) teams lose interest quickly these days if they are getting beat every week.

Until the league adopt a more standard promotion/relegation (eg 2 up, 2 down) and put all the new teams in their own Rookies League in their 1st season (to find their true level) this will carry on happening.

I know this is a pointless post because it's not going to happen but just don't be surprised at getting the same result every season when we carry on doing the same thing.

It looks as though 5 of the 8 divisions will be won by new teams this year - how can that be right??

I've said before each new team know who there signing so get there signatures early and restrict new signings at least you'll know the standard of player who's going to them and then put Into the correct standard

Blackie wrote:

CSKA17 wrote:

SAFC_Pothunter wrote:

10 teams is fine, I would reduce the AM to a knock-out cup too. 10 only hasn't been enough this year due to 2 teams dropping out.

18 league games plus realistically 6-10 cup games is enough for the season

Problem is, there always seems to be about 2 teams that drop out every year. So 12 teams, with the Arthur Moore going to straight knockout would be about the same number of fixtures, and build some resiliance against teams dropping out.

Ideally teams wouldn't fold, but the league can't control that (even the people running the teams can't)

So setting up to fail!! How can that be the right approach?!

Most resignations are sides that are struggling having been placed in the wrong division... Unfortunately (Pochin and Royal Oak aside) teams lose interest quickly these days if they are getting beat every week.

Until the league adopt a more standard promotion/relegation (eg 2 up, 2 down) and put all the new teams in their own Rookies League in their 1st season (to find their true level) this will carry on happening.

I know this is a pointless post because it's not going to happen but just don't be surprised at getting the same result every season when we carry on doing the same thing.

It looks as though 5 of the 8 divisions will be won by new teams this year - how can that be right??

To be fair Blackie, I don't think any of the teams that resigned were out of their depth. It seems they all just lacked commitment from players and that is the problem on Sundays these days. Players want it easy. I don't like the idea of a rookie league personally and never have because you could get a Div 1 standard team in amongst a load of Div 7s. It wouldn't teach us much.

Why not let new teams have a season or two in one of the other leagues, then if they want to move over having proved themselves the alliance can then have a realistic chance of putting them in the appropriate league. That would also make promotions/ relegations more suitable to all existing clubs.

Jimmyb wrote:

10 was never going to be enough for the Premiership! Had a bit of time on my hands so just worked out how many games we will have played this season come May.

14 league games.
1 league game played but voided due to Azzurri folding
4 Billy Walton
2 Sunday Premier
2 Arthur Moore
1 Arthur Moore game played but voided due to Tomlin folding
24 total games played.

Our season will have spanned 36 Sunday's by the time we finish the season against Barcabullona.

1 week off at Christmas
1 free week requested

That leaves 10 Sunday's where we haven't had games! Pretty sure we haven't had any cancelled due to the weather either! We could've got to the final of every competition we've been in and still had 5 free Sunday's!

12 teams minimum in all the divisions should be the aim!

Couldn't agree more with this #commonsenseprevails

bretty1 wrote:

Why not let new teams have a season or two in one of the other leagues, then if they want to move over having proved themselves the alliance can then have a realistic chance of putting them in the appropriate league. That would also make promotions/ relegations more suitable to all existing clubs.

think that idea was actually in place many many years ago

bretty1 wrote:

Why not let new teams have a season or two in one of the other leagues, then if they want to move over having proved themselves the alliance can then have a realistic chance of putting them in the appropriate league. That would also make promotions/ relegations more suitable to all existing clubs.

Agreed.
It happened from 91/92 for 5 years when the Alliance intentionally remained at 4 Divisions for management reasons. Quality is more important than quantity. We stopped taking applications when the number on the table reached double figures.