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LFFA Merger Throughout
this season a number of senior officers from both the Amateur Football
Combination and the London Financial Football Association have held a series of
meetings in order to progress the proposed merger of our leagues for the start
of season 2006/07. We
have had a number of issues to consider – league rules, cup competitions,
finances, referees, and the constitution (divisional structure) for next season.
The meetings have been productive and the issues addressed. The
LFFA Cup Competitions will continue in their own right, to include all existing
LFFA clubs who currently enter them. We have compared and contrasted the two
sets of league rules, bearing in the mind the requirement to conform to FA
Standard Rules, and these have been agreed. The financial questions have been
addressed, and we believe that a referees’ panel combining the officials from
both leagues (many of whom are already on both panels anyway) will offer a
stronger and better environment for both referees and clubs. Since Christmas the
LFFA league tables and results have been published on the AFC website, and all
LFFA Officers, Clubs and Referees should now be receiving both LFFA and AFC
Results and Tables via the AFC weekly bulletin. The “final issue”, and from our experience of the merger of the Old Boys Football League and Southern Olympian League in 2002, the most sensitive for clubs, is that of the League Constitution. Our
priority in all of our considerations is simply to place clubs at the right
level. If we put a club in a division too high up for their playing standard
all we do is condemn them to a season (or more) of getting beaten and
relegation. Equally, if we put a club in a division too low, we condemn nine or
ten other sides to a season of watching a team walk away with their title. Our
objective is to avoid both. To
determine the right level for all clubs we have relied heavily on AFA Cup
Results from both this season and last season – these offer a good idea of the
likely strength of the various teams, and how to set up the proposed divisions.
This was the method used in 2002 for the creation of the Amateur Football
Combination to great success – a little recalled fact is that when the 240 ex-OBFL
and 110 ex-SOL Clubs had completed their first season, ex-OBFL Clubs had won 23
Divisional Titles and ex-SOL Clubs had won 11. At the Merger Steering Committee Meeting in March it was agreed that a “draft constitution” would be sent out to all AFC and LFFA Clubs prior to the Constitution/Merger Steering Committee meeting due to be held on Monday 15th May, at which a constitution will be agreed by the two leagues prior to this summer’s Annual General Meetings. This “draft constitution” has now been considerd by the joint Constitution/Steering Committee and has now been published for final consultation.
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