League Statement – 27th February

The SCEFL board of directors met on Thursday to discuss the next steps following the curtailment of the league programme for the 2020/21 season.

This week’s announcement from DCMS means that training and playing of football can commence from March 29, and outside hospitality can resume from April 12, assuming that conditions and the spread of Covid-19 continues to improve and doesn’t deteriorate.

We await further clarification from the FA, who are liaising with DCMS. In the meantime, we understand that dressing rooms can be used for matches as per previous guidance and protocols but they should not be used for training purposes.

We mention matches as the league will be contacting all member clubs in the next few days to discuss the potential of a cup competition to be played once football is allowed to return in the final month or so of the season.

We will be sending out a survey in the next few days to understand what interest and appetite there is for this, as it may give clubs the opportunity to start earning revenues again and for players the long-awaited chance to return to action. Such a competition would be voluntary for clubs and the board will provide a further update once more details are known.

Two key points to remember are that no football activity should take place prior to March 29 and that any setbacks on the roadmap in the next month may mean that we can’t provide any football until next season.

Addition: On Sunday 28th February, Clubs have been sent a survey asking whether they would be interested in taking part in a supplementary Cup competition, starting after 12th April. 

This would begin in a mini-league format and would only be an option once we have confirmation that spectators would be allowed in.

Clubs have been asked to respond by 5th March and from those results we will know if this is an option to pursue.

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