Youth Football Clubs {You Are Involved With}

[Kombi Buddie]

Stuart,

we're good thanks.

Have retained the majority of my squad for the coming season.

2 of our best players moved on but I have replaced them with players who are just as good. We've dropped a division, last season was difficult as the results just didn't go our way. Were well beaten by the top 3 in the division but every other game was much of a muchness between the teams but we were on the wrong end of a goal difference too many times. We even managed to lose 1-0 in a match we dominated and the other team never managed a shot.

anyways, onto next season, our last playing minisoccer before going to 9v9, we have a squad of 10, 7 of whom have played with us since day 1.

Due to having 17 players turn up for training 1 day last summer, I created a second team. We were let down by a few parents through the season and it was tough trying to sort out having enough players in 2 locations across Essex for matches on a Sunday. I am taking a step back from the "Blues" and have managed to get a coach to take the team , lock stock & barrel. I can now concentrate on my Yellows team.

The club decided it wanted to get some girls teams and I got tasked with sorting that out in May. We have 18 girls aged 10-12 training every week now but I've been lumbered with that as no one else {other than the club Chairman} has shown any inkling to assist.

I have managed to talk 1 of the dads to take one of the girls teams on Matchdays so I am likely to form 1 team {U12's} for next season but again, I intend to find a coach to take the team on lock stock....

The other girls, we will create a team for too {U13's} but will play friendlies only as I won't enter them in a league if we don't have a coach to take them on match-days.

When the Football Foundation funding stream "grow the game" opens again, I'll be applying for a grant to help us develop the girls football & hopefully pay for a couple of coaching courses too {that's assuming it will open again}

Just had 2 weeks off but we're returning to training next Tuesday, have a few friendlies arranged in the coming weeks and we will be ready for the coming season.

other than that, i'll be organising the clubs summer tournament next year. We were supposed to have 1 this year but only my teams age group went ahead as it was the only 1 to get other teams into it.

I intend to start planning the tourney from September and thinking about 1st weekend in July 2014 but that's only my thought for now.

How did your club do with the kit for kids venture, what did you manage to get?

Offer remains if any of your club' teams want a trip to London, I can arrange matches against the relevant age group in my own club but have good contacts at a few other local clubs so could arrange a couple of games.

Offer is open to anyone on here who's involved in youth football. If your club is into organising tours where you play a match or 2 and you fancy coming to East London....Bit of football, a bit of London &/or a bit of Essex.

Edited August 16, 2013 by Kombi Buddie

[Stuart Dickson]

Stuart,

we're good thanks.

Have retained the majority of my squad for the coming season.

2 of our best players moved on but I have replaced them with players who are just as good. We've dropped a division, last season was difficult as the results just didn't go our way. Were well beaten by the top 3 in the division but every other game was much of a muchness between the teams but we were on the wrong end of a goal difference too many times. We even managed to lose 1-0 in a match we dominated and the other team never managed a shot.

anyways, onto next season, our last playing minisoccer before going to 9v9, we have a squad of 10, 7 of whom have played with us since day 1.

Due to having 17 players turn up for training 1 day last summer, I created a second team. We were let down by a few parents through the season and it was tough trying to sort out having enough players in 2 locations across Essex for matches on a Sunday. I am taking a step back from the "Blues" and have managed to get a coach to take the team , lock stock & barrel. I can now concentrate on my Yellows team.

The club decided it wanted to get some girls teams and I got tasked with sorting that out in May. We have 18 girls aged 10-12 training every week now but I've been lumbered with that as no one else {other than the club Chairman} has shown any inkling to assist.

I have managed to talk 1 of the dads to take one of the girls teams on Matchdays so I am likely to form 1 team {U12's} for next season but again, I intend to find a coach to take the team on lock stock....

The other girls, we will create a team for too {U13's} but will play friendlies only as I won't enter them in a league if we don't have a coach to take them on match-days.

When the Football Foundation funding stream "grow the game" opens again, I'll be applying for a grant to help us develop the girls football & hopefully pay for a couple of coaching courses too {that's assuming it will open again}

Just had 2 weeks off but we're returning to training next Tuesday, have a few friendlies arranged in the coming weeks and we will be ready for the coming season.

other than that, i'll be organising the clubs summer tournament next year. We were supposed to have 1 this year but only my teams age group went ahead as it was the only 1 to get other teams into it.

I intend to start planning the tourney from September and thinking about 1st weekend in July 2014 but that's only my thought for now.

How did your club do with the kit for kids venture, what did you manage to get?

Offer remains if any of your club' teams want a trip to London, I can arrange matches against the relevant age group in my own club but have good contacts at a few other local clubs so could arrange a couple of games.

Offer is open to anyone on here who's involved in youth football. If your club is into organising tours where you play a match or 2 and you fancy coming to East London....Bit of football, a bit of London &/or a bit of Essex.

The ups and downs of juvenile football Kombi. It's a nightmare isn't it.

I don't get too involved in the setting up of new teams. I just put the ads out on the website and compile the names of the applicants. The club secretary seems to do a good job with that though. The way he does it seems to be that he will take so many into the new age group on a first come first served basis and then he'll reserve some places and ask the remaining kids parents if they would be willing to coach in order to get their kid a place in the squad. It seems to work at least to get the team up off the ground. When I was on the committee way back when I was keen to follow our local development officers suggestion to have players from our older team go through their coaching qualifications so they could be paid to help out with coaching football academies at local primary schools. That idea didn't really develop but we've still had a number of kids who've gone through the courses who now help out training the youngest teams. Recruiting coaches is definitely one of the hardest things to do though - especially if you care about the clubs reputation.

We landed up with the Holdalls Kombi. Your Mum and her friends helped us over the line and we were able to donate just short of 200 tokens to a local school in Wishaw to help them get over one of the levels too - I think they got rain jackets. I'm really pleased with that though. Our 97's got the holdalls a few years back and it definitely makes a difference to be able to hand out a bag with a players squad number on it, with his training kit, home kit and away kit all in the bag.

Our AGM is next week. I know there's a number of important points on the agenda but I'll mention your team again and make sure all the coaches are aware of your offer. I think the furthest one of our teams got this summer was Preston but we've had teams in the past go much further south. It may suit them to get a game in Romford.

I'd be interested in knowing how the tournament went on and how easy it was to set up. With Ravenscraig and Dalziel Park being on our doorstep I'd be interested in seeing our club doing something similar but using it to raise money for one or two of the local charities.

[Kombi Buddie]

I'd be interested in knowing how the tournament went on and how easy it was to set up. With Ravenscraig and Dalziel Park being on our doorstep I'd be interested in seeing our club doing something similar but using it to raise money for one or two of the local charities.

Stuart,

Tournament isn't too difficult to set up, it's getting teams to enter that is the tricky bit.

As a 1st go, we had limited the age groups to 4, U8's, U9's U11's & U12's, and had settled on a format of 2 groups of 6 in each age group {12 teams each} and left it to each age group to contact other teams in their age group and distribute entry forms to them.

My age group filled quite quickly, unfortunately, the U8's got 3 teams, the U11's got some promises but nothing concrete and the U12's got nothing.

2 weeks before the tourney, the club decided to pull the plug on the U11's & U12's and we pushed the U9's.

We went ahead with 4 groups of 5, everyone playing each other once in a straight 15 minute match.

Quarter final seen 1st play 2nd from another group.

Semi Final seen QF winners play { 10 minutes each way}

Final - 12 minutes each way

We got the pitches for £100 but had to mark the pitches out ourselves {took 4 hours to lay down 6 pitches of 60x40 yards}

Next year, we will hire pitches from the council but that'll cost us about £500 for the day {that's my guesstimate}

I am looking to do U8's, U9's U10's, U11's, U12's U13's U14's, U15's and will be getting started on it from September so hopefully, we don't have the grief that we had this year.

My intention is

am - U8's, U10's, U12's & U14's

pm - U9's, U11's, U13's & U15's

The format will be determined by how many teams enter but it won't be too elaborate.

2 groups of 5 or 6 play each other once.

3 points for a win

2 points for a score draw

1 point for a no score draw.

Top team in each group plays Final

2nd in each group has 3rd/4th play off final.

U8's, U9's & U10's teams will play on a minisoccer pitch {60x40 yards}

U11's. U12's, U13's U14's U15's will play on a junior pitch {80 X 50 yards}

The venue that we will use is totally fenced in with only 1 gate in.

Cars will be charged £x to park {£3 this year}

Pedestrians possibly will be charged £x to get in too {£1 likely}

This is what just about every other club charges and people attend expecting to pay for car parking or getting in.

This years U9's tourney, we took £450 for car parking,

Other stuff that contribute to the fundraising is

Ice Cream Van - 10% of their takings

Burger Van - 10% of their takings {some clubs fire up BBQ's & get coaches/parents to cook the burgers & sell them etc}

Bouncy Castle - 10% of their takings. They'll bring a few bouncy castles and charge something like £2 for 1/2 an hour or £5 for all day

Raffle - I'll be trying to get some football memorabilia for a decent raffle {Signed West Ham & Tottenham Shirts are the aim}

Programme advertising - selling 1/4, 1/2 & Full page adverts to local business {I can email you our programme for the U9's if you want a look}

It will need a whole club approach on this, teams playing in the morning will be the marshalls in the afternoon & vice versa

I'm sure there is plenty more that needs to be thought about but that'll come soon enough. I'll post up as & when I think of anything else and also, if there's anything you think of, please let me know. Thanks

I'm sure when I sit down & think it all through properly, some of the above may change but these are my immediate thoughts on how it will go.

[Kombi Buddie]

The season starts on Sunday. Home match v Great Danes.

Got offered sponsorship for the team the other day. We had just bought new kits for the season so The Sponsor is buying the players rainjackets instead.

Girls football has taken off, now have 18 girls training and have created an U13's & an U11's team.

Here's hoping for a good season

[lovestreet]

Let me know when you're setting up an U21's I'll happily help out there.

[Stuart Dickson]

Looking good Kombi. Things appear to be really happening since you got involved. It makes brilliant reading. It's a really nice situation when you can get more sponsors than you have kit for. We're due to get our kit bags soon thanks to the Daily Record Kit for Kids, and the efforts of you Mum and her friends. Apparently it should be ready for collection in the next few days.

Our teams going pretty well. We were relegated last year so were in the second tier now - and that will split at Christmas. The good news is that we've won 6 out of 6 in the league so far, and we won our Scottish Cup ties last week against Cabrains from the Cumbernauld area. Next round is against Garnkirk United at Stepps. It's been a classic example of how not to give up at any point though. We were ready to fold the team at a number of points last season but the lads stuck at it and we've built a really strong side for this season now.

[Kombi Buddie]

2-2 with Great Danes today. Could have won the game but both keepers done really well but on the balance, a fair result.

The Chelmsford Youth Football League started today.

Writtle away next weekend so a wee trip out to Chelmsford beckons with the U10 Yellows and the U13 girls who have their first ever match against Writtle U13 Girls.

[Kombi Buddie]

Slash, are our wives related

My wife was going mad about the football last season, I started a second U9 boys team and was training tuesdays & saturdays with matches on a sunday.

My daughter has compounded Nic's footballing anguish by joining the U13's {happy days}

This summer, as I said earlier, i've added 2 girls teams and i'm hoping to get more players, both boys & girls training with us over the summer and create new teams for 2014/15 season. My sticking point is that I cannot train them all so I need to start getting coaches in to take the training.

Any London Saints /Essex Saints who fancy taking up football coaching, decent sized club of teams ranging from U8's to U16's + adult mens, Cerebral Palsy Team, U11 & U13 Girls and senior team playing in Ryman League, give me a shout please. Thanks.

[Kombi Buddie]

U13 girls played their 1st match yesterday. 9v9 at Writtle ladies.

The girls won the second half 2-0 but unfortunately were 3-0 down at half time. 3-2 in their first match against a team that's been playing for 3 years is a pretty good results. I was pretty proud of how well they played and didn't get overawed when 3-0 down. Could have snatched a draw at the end but that would have been unkind to Writtle.

Girls football in essex is proving popular.

[Kombi Buddie]

Most of the girls are Saints fans which is an added bonus - especially fun to see them take the mickey out of the SFA Community coach who is a Morton fan.

Nice

[Stuart Dickson]

I'm probably on to a hiding to nothing on here given my previous track record but even if it just gets one or two votes it'll be worth it....

Can I ask a favour. Can you please click on the following link -https://communityfund.bankofscotland.co.uk/voting/cf_home.asp - put "Wishaw Wycombe" into the search box and submit a vote for us online. When you do you will be asked to fill in your name and e-mail address and once you have voted you will be asked to confirm your vote by clicking on a link that is included in the confirmation e-mail. The Bank of Scotland will donate £3000 to the two community groups that obtain the most votes, and a further two will get £300 each. I am team secretary of Wishaw Wycombe 98's, Scott is a coach and Stephen plays for the team. The club has over 350 registered football players, both boys and girls, from Under 5's to Under 21's. The club does a great job within the local community but with kit costing around £500 for a full set, and training and match day pitch lets increasing all the time the club really needs funds.

[Kombi Buddie]

I'm probably on to a hiding to nothing on here given my previous track record but even if it just gets one or two votes it'll be worth it....

Can I ask a favour. Can you please click on the following link -https://communityfund.bankofscotland.co.uk/voting/cf_home.asp - put "Wishaw Wycombe" into the search box and submit a vote for us online. When you do you will be asked to fill in your name and e-mail address and once you have voted you will be asked to confirm your vote by clicking on a link that is included in the confirmation e-mail. The Bank of Scotland will donate £3000 to the two community groups that obtain the most votes, and a further two will get £300 each. I am team secretary of Wishaw Wycombe 98's, Scott is a coach and Stephen plays for the team. The club has over 350 registered football players, both boys and girls, from Under 5's to Under 21's. The club does a great job within the local community but with kit costing around £500 for a full set, and training and match day pitch lets increasing all the time the club really needs funds.

meant to say before, done. So has Nic {wife} & Kirsty {daughter}.

What brings me back to this thread is,

Just ordered a load of Umbro kits from Direct Soccer for the girls football teams. At 9.99 {juniors} and 11.99 for a full strip of Shirt, Shorts & Socks is a cracking deal and they've still got plenty left {or they did}

with embroidered badge & number, comes to 15 quid.

The U13 Girls have their second match tomorrow, away to Billericay Town Girls, who I have heard are a good team. 2pm kick off if you're in or around Billericay & fancy catching a good game of football

[Stuart Dickson]

meant to say before, done. So has Nic {wife} & Kirsty {daughter}.

What brings me back to this thread is,

Just ordered a load of Umbro kits from Direct Soccer for the girls football teams. At 9.99 {juniors} and 11.99 for a full strip of Shirt, Shorts & Socks is a cracking deal and they've still got plenty left {or they did}

with embroidered badge & number, comes to 15 quid.

The U13 Girls have their second match tomorrow, away to Billericay Town Girls, who I have heard are a good team. 2pm kick off if you're in or around Billericay & fancy catching a good game of football

Kombi thanks for voting. The latest update I have is that Wishaw Wycombe are still well behind in the voting although we've been catching up. Here's hoping that one big push between now and the 1st of November will help see us through.

I saw Direct Soccers e-mail a week ago and I saw the offer price. They don't appear to have the Chevron kit that we use as our home kit but it's a great opportunity for some of our teams to refresh their away kit. I'll pass the details on to the other coaches. £15 is a superb price especially if it includes embroidery and the numbers.

[Stuart Dickson]

Every year at Wishaw Wycombe I organise a day out for the kids - with the intention of it being a bit special. Most Scottish clubs have been shite at this and getting anything that resembles value for money is difficult, the exception being Dunfermline who provided us with 25 free match day tickets for a Dunfermline v Motherwell SPL match after they signed one of our players into their pro youth team.

As a result we've ended up going to watch :-

Sunderland v Birmingham in the EPL where we managed to arrange for the boys to meet a number of Birmingham players and officials including Alex McLeish, Roy Aitken and James McFadden and got an unlimited number of tickets for £5 each regardless of whether they were for adults or kids.

Manchester City v WBA in the EPL - kids tickets were £5 each, adults £10 and Man City arranged for us to be met by Mike Summerbee who took us all onto the pitch for a wee wander one hour before kick off, and he introduced us to a couple of the Man City players before handing us over a couple of signed shirts for us to auction at our Sportsmans Dinner.

Bolton Wanderers v Swansea in the EPL - all tickets were £10 each, four adult tickets were free. The kids got a coaching session at the Reebok Arena before the match before being taken to meet Owen Coyle and a few of the Bolton players prior to kick off.

And last year Sunderland v Everton - which was organised through the Sunderland Foundation. Tickets were £10 each and they arranged a match against a local boys club, then we took part in a sponsored penalty shoot out which was used to raise money for the Foundation which supports local charities in Sunderland, before heading back to the stadium for lunch and a tour before the match.

We've also had other age groups at the club doing similar trips at Blackpool, Wigan and at Newcastle

This year we've been looking around for the best deals on offer and I came across Stoke City's offering which is brilliant. Apparently they supply junior clubs with complete kits if they bring groups of 100 or more to selected matches - it doesn't need to be all for one match. They'll also deliver matchday coaching free of charge, take the kids down pitch side for photos etc and they are doing tickets for £10 each regardless of whether you are an adult or a child as well. If they kids are young enough they can also apply to be flag bearers walking the team out onto the pitch and they'll do stadium tours and allow kids groups to meet the Stoke City man of the match after the game.

It's absolutely superb how some of these EPL clubs are looking after kids groups in their local community. It's a shame Scottish clubs are so retarded when it comes to the same.

Edited October 29, 2013 by Stuart Dickson

[Stuart Dickson]

100% record in the season so far. 12 played, 36 points in the bag. Not that I'm taking credit, we've got some very useful kids playing football for us this season some of whom should certainly be playing at a higher level. To illustrate the point one of the lads who was basically a sub for our team rejected an offer of pro youth football from Motherwell and opted to sign for Clyde two months ago. He was picked up after having impressed while playing for North Lanarkshire. Our 11th player to go pro youth over the last five years.

[Kombi Buddie]

a wee heart warmer.

I booked the astro turf at a secondary school up the road for midweek training last week for 10 weeks as our usual midweek training ground is under water.

Our weekend training ground has succumbed to waterlogging too and training on Saturday got cancelled too. I called the school & asked if there was any chance we could train there for 2 hours on Saturday morning. We could and duly turned up & started training at 10.

Around 10:45, the heavens opened but we soldiered on but the rain became sleet like and around 11, became torrential and the players started to enjoy it less & less so we decided to call it a day.

At training last night, I got called into the office and they offered me my money back since the rain had disrupted our training and we'd only trained for 1 of the 2 hours booked. Never experienced that before, anyways

we opted to take a 2 hour booking this Saturday

and

they've offered to better any price we get for our summer tournament. Happy with that.

[Stuart Dickson]

Wishaw Wycombe 98's won again yesterday. That's 15 wins, 1 draw and 0 losses in the league this season. We beat our nearest title challengers 7-1 in our best performance of the season.

Bizarrely we may have already won the league but as yet we don't know for certain. The league set up was that we would play one round of fixtures against all of the teams in our league - that's 13 matches. Then the league was to split into 2 groups of 7 with each team in the section playing each other once at home and once away from home making a total of 26 fixtures. However a number of teams have petitioned the league to have the season end after the first round of fixtures meaning a total of 19 matches instead of 26. This is on the grounds that as Under 16's our players are all sitting their exams this year and they should be given time off football to study. This would leave us with just Cup ties to play out the season. The proposal has since been put to a vote - I obviously voted for the 26 game season - and apparently with two votes still to come in it's completely tied.

Anyway once again the best part of this season has been to see our players continue to develop. A number of pro youth scouts have been circling again and without any doubt at all we could see another four, possibly five, players going pro youth. that would add to the 11 we've already supplied to that level of the game.

Edited February 17, 2014 by Stuart Dickson

[Kombi Buddie]

the professional clubs down here hoover up players showing any "promise" from the age of 8 or 9.

Charlton, Chelsea & Southend all train development squads in my local park and West Ham is 1 mile away.

My mates nephew Dillon Phillips joined Charlton when he was 9, is now 18 and has recently gone with their 1st team as cover for the GK.

Dillons younger brother got signed by Tottenham aged 8.

Last season, I got a call from a scout of Norwich FC wanting to come and watch my team, they were 8 years of age. Pure mental that the senior clubs obliterate local youth teams so early but it's something I suppose we've got to learn to live with.

We go 9v9 next season & I can't wait for that, the lads in the team will be well able for it & with that bit of a bigger pitch to play on, should do well.

In the meantime, I've cracked on starting an U13 Girls team and will start an U12 girls team for next season.

Stuart, recently completed a "grow the game" funding application for which I had to attend a meeting with Essex FA and discuss the plan with them.

As long as they now support the application, I could gain funding up to £4500 to start 3 new girls teams. I have said U12's this season followed by another U12's & U10's girls the following season. Just got to wait now & see what GTG decide as a few clubs were applying for funding. Essex FA had an allocation of £75000 they can distribute.

[Stuart Dickson]

the professional clubs down here hoover up players showing any "promise" from the age of 8 or 9.

Charlton, Chelsea & Southend all train development squads in my local park and West Ham is 1 mile away.

My mates nephew Dillon Phillips joined Charlton when he was 9, is now 18 and has recently gone with their 1st team as cover for the GK.

Dillons younger brother got signed by Tottenham aged 8.

Last season, I got a call from a scout of Norwich FC wanting to come and watch my team, they were 8 years of age. Pure mental that the senior clubs obliterate local youth teams so early but it's something I suppose we've got to learn to live with.

We go 9v9 next season & I can't wait for that, the lads in the team will be well able for it & with that bit of a bigger pitch to play on, should do well.

In the meantime, I've cracked on starting an U13 Girls team and will start an U12 girls team for next season.

Stuart, recently completed a "grow the game" funding application for which I had to attend a meeting with Essex FA and discuss the plan with them.

As long as they now support the application, I could gain funding up to £4500 to start 3 new girls teams. I have said U12's this season followed by another U12's & U10's girls the following season. Just got to wait now & see what GTG decide as a few clubs were applying for funding. Essex FA had an allocation of £75000 they can distribute.

It's the same up here Kombi. You've got Pro Youth clubs taking kids for "training" from the age of 8 and signing players at the age of 10. Our team - Under 16's - has had to be rebuilt three times over because of the effects of pro youth football. The fact the team still continues to compete for honours is real testimony to the guys who do the coaching. Personally I'd never stop a player moving to Pro Youth football but some clubs are seriously bad at what they do. Take Clyde for example. I'm a big fan of the way the club has become a CIC and I like the way the club is progressing, but at Pro Youth level they club appears to be constantly turning over coaches. During the summer, after one change, I know they put their squads into Portacabins and dumped half their players depending on what cabin they were in. Now I get that football is a harsh game and there's no great way to tell players they are no longer wanted but to then phone them up again 5 or 6 weeks later to tell them that they've changed their mind just seems ridiculous and shows a lack of direction to me.

I personally think that the old S Form system served the Scottish game much better. It certainly meant that senior clubs had to be more selective about who they took on and it took away the notion of having "shirt fillers" littering your squads just to make up the numbers. I've said more than often enough that having a set up where senior clubs work closely with juvenile clubs would be much more efficient system. Using the juvenile coaches to get intel on players would make sense as would releasing your rejects to the juvenile club where they can continue to be monitored.

Well done on the grants btw. I don't know if it's a Scottish initiative only but if you are starting up a girls team it might be worth talking to your local McDonalds franchise holder. They appear to be quite keen to get involved.

[Kombi Buddie]

^{a friend of mine who manages an U13 team has a dilemma and isn't quite sure what he should do, I thought I'd run it past folks on this thread to ask for your opinion on it.}

^{one of his players has called off from todays league match so that he can play in a friendly for another club but says he's "not leaving the team"}

^{The player has been doing additional training with this club as they play in a higher division of a similar league. It is not an academy or a pro youth team that he's playing the friendly for.}

^{how would you manage this}

^{.accept that he's looking for another team but play him when he turns up.}

^{Wish him all the best but since he's looking for a new team, best to play the players that want to play in the team?}

^{Something else?}

^{Many thanks.}

^G..

Edited February 23, 2014 by Kombi Buddie

[Stuart Dickson]

^{a friend of mine who manages an U13 team has a dilemma and isn't quite sure what he should do, I thought I'd run it past folks on this thread to ask for your opinion on it.}

^{one of his players has called off from todays league match so that he can play in a friendly for another club but says he's "not leaving the team"}

^{The player has been doing additional training with this club as they play in a higher division of a similar league. It is not an academy or a pro youth team that he's playing the friendly for.}

^{how would you manage this}

^{.accept that he's looking for another team but play him when he turns up.}

^{Wish him all the best but since he's looking for a new team, best to play the players that want to play in the team?}

^{Something else?}

^{Many thanks.}

^G..

It's blatant poaching Kombi and it's not allowed by the SYFA. These days, up here, to play a friendly we have to apply for a kind of licence to play the match. The referee than has to have full team lists submitted along with the licence before the friendly match can kick off. Only trialists that are unregistered can play in those matches.

I was at the LFDA AGM on Sunday night and this very issue was discussed because poaching is causing a number of clubs to fold. Andy Gilchrist - one of the SFA Development Managers was in attendance and responded when the subject was raised. The SYFA and LFDA are now taking a tough line on it issuing fines for clubs that are found to be poaching and the instruction to us all was clear - if a boy appears at one of our training sessions asking to join in we have to take their details and then tell they cannot take part in that training session but that we'll be in touch once we check his registration details.

In this instance I would be checking with your local league structure what the rules are, and I would make them clear to the boy and to his parents and force him to make a choice.

[Stuart Dickson]

BTW - nothing to do with me but the Chairman of Wishaw Wycombe today announced that our team has done an exclusive kit deal with Uhlsport to supply our kits for the next two years. Apparently it means all of our teams getting a free complete home team kit. There's some sort of target we have to hit in terms of numbers of bought items but it seems that sits within our current purchasing requirements.

[Bud Bundy]

BTW - nothing to do with me but the Chairman of Wishaw Wycombe today announced that our team has done an exclusive kit deal with Uhlsport to supply our kits for the next two years. Apparently it means all of our teams getting a free complete home team kit. There's some sort of target we have to hit in terms of numbers of bought items but it seems that sits within our current purchasing requirements.

Respect for your enthusiasm, Stuart you are doing a grand job Still say you are a bawbag though ?

[Kombi Buddie]

BTW - nothing to do with me but the Chairman of Wishaw Wycombe today announced that our team has done an exclusive kit deal with Uhlsport to supply our kits for the next two years. Apparently it means all of our teams getting a free complete home team kit. There's some sort of target we have to hit in terms of numbers of bought items but it seems that sits within our current purchasing requirements.

Great stuff Stuart, your Chairman has done well.

I quite liked the Uhlsport top they done for St Mirren a {good} few years back & had wondered why their kits weren't so popular at grassroots.

Would like to see what kit Uhlsport do in Yellow {top} with Royal blue trim if any, but in the meantime,

I've been looking at Joma's kits & Adidas for our club for next season. Would love to get close to the deal WWW have got with Uhlsport.

I told my mate that he'd be daft to take the player back as it was obvious he thinks he's better than the team & he should stick with the players he has, who want to play.

My mates U13 team won 7-2 on Sunday and the wantaway scored twice in the friendly for the other team. Looks like everyone is a winner :-).

Edited February 26, 2014 by Kombi Buddie

[Kombi Buddie]

meant to add,

Joma can & will produce any of their kits in bespoke colours.

I asked for a price on a kit that they don't have on the shelf if they would do it in Yellow with royal blue trim.

with no minimum quantity, I've been told £28 for top & shorts. They are now getting me a price larger quantities.

Kits are made in Madrid so it will be a slower turnaround than walking into Prokituk and ordering a kit off the shelf but, with the template already made, the kit can continue for years & years instead of the 3 year period the kit manufacturers have now.