What's things like locally?
Was flourishing 10-15 years ago but get the feeling less people are playing Sunday 11 a side these days.
What's refereeing like? Watching how little you can tackle in the pro game then most Sunday games would be 8 v 8 after ten minutes if the same approach was taken
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Numbers playing 11 v 11 dropped by 33% in this country, can't remember the time frame of this drop but it wasn't long.
There are 3 leagues now, about 30 teams. Interest is definitely dropping off/moving onto 5/6a side.
Subs were £7 a week by the end I think, plus a couple of quid at training.
Ref quality was very varied!
My job as manager I thought would be to pick a side from 14 players and gently ease the youngsters into mens football and keep the first team players who were slowing down and getting fatter involved. Nope.
Even though we had a good infrastructure in terms of a treasurer, chairman, secretary and sponsor getting the youngsters out of bed was down to me, getting the kit cleaned ended up being me, putting the fucking nets up ended up as me, paying the referee nearly always came out of my pocket and bearing in mind I was only running the team as my knee was knackered I ended up playing half the time too as we would only have 10 turn up. Then getting money out of everyone was down to me even though we managed to get subs right down to about 4 quid a game and free if you started on the bench. After half a season I'd had enough I'm still owed about 500 sheets and this was over a decade ago.
What I will say about lack of interest, the facilities were appalling, no changing rooms, no toilets, if there was changing rooms then there was ever any hot water. With 5 a side nowadays there are decent facilities, somewhere to have a drink after and a semblance of organisation.
My highlight was seeing @carlsberg score a beauty of a hatrrick to secure our first win which turned a corner before I handed the reigns over to one of the smart-arse's who thought they could do a better job than me. Their face when I emptied an estate cars worth of paraphernalia into their shitty hatchback whilst explaining how this would now dominate their weekend was worth the bitterness I felt
We use Hall Place and the new changing facilities are there are some of the best in the league. Pitches aren't great, but neither is the standard of the the football.
The standard of refereeing is pretty good, our 1st XI tend to have a ref appointed by the league and we've got a couple of good refs we rely on for 2nd and 3rd XI matches.
No evidence for it its just my opinion but its easier and cheaper now for young men to jump on their xbox and play Fifa.
I used to get up every Saturday, first one out the changing rooms with nets, last one in putting them back, playing in the freezing cold in mud up to my knees to find half your team have suddenly got diarrhea and the other side are only interested in a punching your face in.
Not sure I blame them.
We're in the Kent Suburban Division 1 and have a Fair Play Cup Final this Sunday at Phoenix before the season kicks off properly the week after.
Got half a dozen decent players from what I've seen so far, but no doubt we'll be scrambling around for players most Saturday nights and Sunday mornings just to make the 11 despite having about 25 signed on!
Ahh Sundays!
We didn't really have a reason to break up, but a lot of the Reigate Hornets joined Reigations AFC Saturday team and still play together in the 1's.
Standard is pony at the lower ones... but down there it's about getting out, having a run around and a drink and some food after. More socially active than any Sunday ones I've been at in the past as well. Did love Sunday league too, but if I got dropped there was no '5th' team to fall into and get a game!
But tbh both have their decent players and their wrong uns.
That's not to say you don't get a few bruising tackles and occasional handbags on Saturdays.
Freddie plays in the top division of 7, it makes me laugh because all the parents want to do is tell you what academy their boy is attached too. Most of whom haven't got any chance whatsoever of making it as a footballer, so much pressure put on the boys at this age.
Freddie has a mate at school who is attached to Arsenal, his parents were given £5k at the age of seven for him to sign, incredible!
My local team Teynham Wanderers are 50/50 to start the season which is a great shame as this would be there 50th season of fielding a team.
If anybody is in the area and fancies a run out let me know.
Speaking with the Chairman he feels a lot of the younger generation do not play anymore due to nightclubs locally staying open till 4-6am hence they can't get up as opposed to the pub closing at 11.30 and the club at 2am a few years ago.
For what its worth I think you were faster than prior, although he did have plimsols on!
I was a forward at 11-aside started really training after the CL games and ended up getting fit enough to be used in the Simon Church/Luke Varney chase down everything role and managed to bag a couple a season along with a few assists.
100m pace is now 12.36 seconds and 5k pace is in the 21:20's bracket.
Back then it was around 16 seconds for 100m and 28 minutes for a 5k lol!
Currently training for a 3hr30-3hr45 Marathon in November.
(Good lord, thinking back, I hadn't played 11-aside since leaving school and hadn't really exercised at all since leaving my fitness instructor job at 18 - It seems in the 3 years until I turned 21, I had undone all the hard work it took to get me into the shape that got me through that job! When I look back at the CLFC days, I'm not surprised I was very slow!)
I'll take you and @Oggy Red up on that 100m sprint now if you like