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Sponsorship of the League
The League is delighted to announce that it has reached an agreement with its existing sponsors, Crown Fire Protection Ltd. of Dereham, to extend the present sponsorship deal for the League for a further five years. The company, which is a family run local business, also has an outlet in central London. The company specialises in high risk fire protection and provides large fixed fire-fighting equipment. The company has worked on several large contracts including the Channel Tunnel, the Limehouse Link Tunnel, Nuclear Electric and, abroad, for FSO Cars in Poland and Cerestar in France and Germany. The company has present contracts with Lotus Cars, Birds Eye and the Bank of Bilbao together with the work it does for long term clients such as London Underground and J
The League uses the sponsorship monies for the direct benefit of its member clubs. There are cash awards to the winners of the annual Sporting Award and the Club of the Year award, a Club of the Month award during the season including a match ball, reductions in club subscriptions and further investment and enhancement in the League's web site.
The League which has been known as the Crown Fire Central and South Norfolk League for the past seven years is very pleased to be able to continue the very successful relationship with the company developed over this period. Hector Chambers, the League President and Chairman, said "The League is very pleased to be associated with Crown Fire and the continuation of our sponsorship arrangement with Crown Fire is seen as being a very important part of our development plans for the future".
One of the local directors of Crown Fire Protection is Charlie Lubbock who has played an active part in local football in Norfolk for many years as a player, club official, Class 1 referee and referee's assessor. In settling the sponsorship deal, Charlie said "The Company is pleased to be able to support the League and help it to continue to grow and develop".
Club Support Scheme
At the end of season 2006/07, the Management Committee agreed to establish a Club Support Scheme for the League as part of the Financial Strategy it had adopted. One of the objectives from the Strategy was to adopt an annual scheme where excess balances may be used to assist member clubs on a selective or annual basis. The intention is to use the League's financial resources to assist and encourage clubs on an annual basis, either generally or by a selective method. For the first season, the Scheme was used to provide every team in the League with a match ball and these were distributed at the Annual General Meeting. The following season, the Management Committee decided to reward clubs with good disciplinary records by means of financial awards at the end of the season. The scheme which the Management Committee agreed was based on simple principles including:
• points allocated for cautions and sendings off
• a cut off point of the top 15% for deciding which teams receive awards
• unit values being used so that the team(s) with the better records receive proportionately more awards rounded up or down to the nearest pound
The amount of the pool for that season's Scheme was £1,125 made up of £1,000 from the Club Support Scheme (an increase of £100 on the previous season) and £125 from the Sporting Award winners fund. This amount was increased to £1150 for 2009/10 and to £1200 for 2010/11. Seven teams received awards at the Annual General Meeting in June 2010 and were presented with cheques ranging in value from £52 to £313.
The Management Committee will consider whether to use the same scheme again for the coming season including the size of the pool.
Respect Programme
The Management Committee agreed to recommend clubs that the League should participate in the Respect programme which was launched at the start of the 2008/09 season by the FA. Information about the programme can be found on the FA website by clicking here. The first step in agreeing to participate was to ask all clubs whether they wished to participate as part of the League's commitment given that this is currently a voluntary scheme. As a result of the responses received, the Management Committee agreed to hold an Extraordinary General meeting in the new year. However, that decision was reviewed and the matter was then discussed at the AGM in 2009 when Respect Information Packs were handed out to all clubs.
In season 2009/10, the Football Association recognised the contribution of the League to the Respect programme by naming the League as runners up in the grassroots section of the national Respect and Fair Play awards.
Training Seminar for Club Administrators
The Management Committee provides a training seminar for club secretaries and other club officials who have responsibility for or are interested in club administration. The objective of the seminar is to provide a detailed hands-on advice session of the do's and don'ts of club administration relative to the League's Rules and Byelaws. This season's seminar took place at Aldiss Park, Dereham on Monday, 16 August.
Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting for 2010 was held at North Wymondham Community Centre on Monday, 7th June. The meeting elected thirteen new teams to membership giving the League 55 competing teams for next season. The new teams are Dereham Cockers Utd., Diss Town A, Feltwell Utd., Mattishall A, North Elmham (1st team & Res.), Nostro Res., Marham Wanderers, Mulbarton Wanderers Res., Rockland Utd. Res., Tacolneston Res., Tugas Utd. and Weasenham Wanderers.
Wendling were presented with the Sporting Award Shield, having achieved an excellent record with regard to disciplinary offences. Thetford Rovers Res. were named as the Club of the Year for their excellent season in which they won Division 2, reached the Primary League Cup Final and the semi-finals of the Norfolk Primary Cup and received the Ricky Brown Memorial Shield. Malcolm Crickmore, Secretary of Thurton & Ashby, received the Nigel Riches Memorial Shield as Secretary of the Year.
The Club Support scheme which was based on disciplinary records for the past season meant that 7 teams with the best records received cheques totalling £1,200 from the scheme pool. The teams (in order of their share of the pool) were Wendling, Hethersett Athletic, Shropham Utd. Res., Necton Res., Gressenhall Res., Nostro and Scarning Utd.
Rule changes approved at the meeting included an increase to the annual subscription, the setting of fixed fines for a number of breaches of Rules, a fee for registering players with permission after the registration deadline and a change to the results procedure to encourage the use of text messaging.
There were no changes to the officer posts and the following were elected:
President & Chairman - Hector Chambers
Deputy Chairman - Dick Davey
Secretary/Treasurer - John Turner
Deputy Secretary - Mick Utting
Match Officer - David Sewell
Jason Evans and Alan Saxby were elected to serve on the Management Committee along with five other existing members of the Committee.
A copy of the Annual Report can be obtained from the League Secretary - contact him at central_snorfolk@btinternet.com
The constitution of the League for this season was agreed at the meeting and can be seen by clicking here
Committee Meetings
The Management Committee will next meet on Monday, 6 September. Among the items to be discussed are:
- Emergency Sub-Committee decisions - Applications to enter League
- Club failing to attend Training Seminar
- Financial Report
- Benevolent and Development Funds
- Expenses for Management Committee members
- Norfolk FA Leagues meeting - 25 August 2010
- Sponsorship
- Club Support Scheme
- Suspended players - amnesty
- FA Respect Programme
- Benevolent Cup Semi-Finals representation
The Rules Compliance Sub-Committee last met on Monday, 14 June. Fines amounting to £388 were imposed on 8 clubs for various breaches of the Rules.
The Emergency Sub-Committee last met on Monday, 16 August to discuss a late application from Great Ryburgh to enter the League.
League Trust
The first Annual General Meeting of the League Trust was held on 22nd December 2009 following the establishment of the Trust earlier in the year. The three new trustees had been appointed by the Management Committee and are Simon Barnes, Simon Bell and Dale Brown. They were confirmed as members of the Trust's Executive Committee along with the League Chairman, Secretary and Deputy Secretary. Dale Brown was elected as the Trust's Chairman with Hector Chambers as his Deputy and John Turner as Secretary to the Trust. The next AGM was held on 25 January 2010. At the Annual General Meeting in June 2010, Derek Barnard was appointed as a trustee in place of Simon Bell who had become a member of the Management Committee.
League Representative Matches
In 2005, the League played a representative match to mark the League's centenary. The Management Committee then agreed to introduce this on an annual basis and, as a result, the League invited the North East Norfolk League to play us. The first match was played at Aldiss Park, Dereham on 7th May 2008. The League beat the North East Norfolk League 4-2. The match against the North East Norfolk League was played again on 6th May 2009 and the League won 2-1.
Promotion and Relegation
Division 1 - one team to be relegated.
Division 2 - two teams to be promoted.
Division 3 - two teams to be promoted.
Division 4 - four teams to be promoted.
The decision was reviewed at the meeting of the Management Committee held on 17 May. Because of the record number of applications (13) and the withdrawals (2) which had been received, the Committee varied the above decision as follows:
Division 1 - one team to be relegated.
Division 2 - three teams to be promoted.
Division 3 - four teams to be promoted.
Division 4 - six teams to be promoted.
The above was recommended to the Annual General Meeting as the basis for the constitution of the League for next season.
FA Charter Award
The following clubs in membership of the League have been awarded the FA Charter Standard for Adult Clubs: Bunwell, Wymondham Town A