PRESENT; Phil Bunt (Chairman), Debbie Knowles (Secretary), Kevin Knowles (Referee Co-ordinater), Kyle Harvey (Welfare Officer) APOLOGIES; Craig Turner, Malcolm Moses, Mark Carney, Judy & Lester Gunn.
A minute’s silence was held in memory of Bernard McGivern from Newquay Ladies and Thomas Turner from Falmouth Utd.
ROLE CALL OF CLUBS Culdrose, Falmouth Ath DC, Falmouth Town, Falmouth Utd, Grasshoppers, Hayle, Helston, Illogan, Liskeard, Newquay AFC, Penryn Ath, Penzance AFC, Penzance Ladies, Perranwell, Porthleven, Tregorrick, Trevenson, Truro City, Wendron. APOLOGIES; Chacewater, Charlestown, Gwinear, Leedstown, Ludgvan, Perranporth, St Breward. The following clubs will be fined for non attendance and no apologies, Godolphin Atlantic, Holmans, Launceston, Newquay Ladies, Probus, Rosudgeon, St Ives, St Stephen, St Agnes, Trelawney, Wadebridge.
SECRETARY'S REPORT: A list was submitted by the County Fa enlightening us on all the disciplinary actions which have been taken by them so far, 9 clubs and 52 players have been dealt with different actions. Phil was in close contact with the CCFA as they deal with the on the field issues, and as we manage the competitions, we sanction issues on the side lines, everyone agrees that a system needs to be in place to sort out any issues asap, rather than sometimes several weeks to get them resolved. We would be looking into having a direct link within the system that picks up any problems that can be sent straight to the County.
Semi Finals 20-03-11: Phil discussed the arrangements for the Semis at Newquay, with additional parking and refreshments, the schedule had been sent out via the website, Jamie was thanked for organising the pitches and resources at Newquay Sports Centre, all pitches will have spectator areas with barriers been placed around all the pitches, all managers were asked to make their parents aware of this and that no one would be allowed to stand behind the goals either. Ray Brown would be supplying the referees on the day. As for the 11 aside semi finals, these have all been set dates and will be played on the home side venue, a neutral referee will be appointed and each club notified within the week prior to the date been set. The dates of all finals have been published on the website since the start of the season and are as follows; Minis, Girls and U16s at Hayle on 08-05-11 U12s and U13s at Penryn on 15-05-11 U14s and U15s at Wendron on 22-05-11 There will be no entrance fee again this year, but collection buckets in aid of The Childrens Hospice, with programmes too.
Treasurers Report: In Craigs absence Debbie read out the balance of £10641.86, she also paid out the following Level 1 reinbursements; Illogan £100, Leedstown £75, Grasshoppers £100, Falmouth Utd £25, Culdrose £50,Helston £50., it was agreed that £25 per team invoice submitted would be paid out, and the possibility of reinbursements in future seasons would be considered again. The medals for this years’ finalists have all been ordered from Cornwall Trophies who have matched last years’ prices.
Fixture Secretarys Report: Mark Sent his apologies. Phil reported that all the All Cornwall leagues were running ok and that all matches have scheduled dates to finish on time ,has he as been liasing with the managers to get them communicating between themselves and managing the fixtures between them, he has also told his managers that all fixtures must be completed a week prior to the finals, and as all finals this year are set in May, it gives teams an extra few weeks to play with. He hopes that there will not be a back log of fixtures towards the end of the season. Debbie reported that some mini leagues had already completed their fixtures with the majority of the rest on schedule to finish well within time too, but she had concerns that far too many matches had been cancelled with lack of players, as teams would not commit to playing without their full strong squads, we would therefore be looking at other options next season on postponement request for lack of players. Some leagues still have several matches to play and were told to get on with them, with the availability of the squads they have. As for the girls well done to the u12s as some teams have almost completed their fixtures without any postponements at all, but the u14/u15 are far from completing theirs as they have cancelled far too many because of dual registration issues, I did say this would cause problems at the start of the season, some teams have managed their fixtures well, but a minority of teams have caused problems by postponing matches which has had a knock on effect with the others. Please remember that everyone involved in finals must have completed all their league fixtures at least 1 week prior to their final date, to be eligable to complete in their final.
Possible Rule Changes: Phil discussed the possibility of postponement requests only been allowed on the grounds of pitch related issues and not for lack of players, this was viewed with interest, so it was agreed that more details would be drawn up and made viewable for all via the website, for all clubs to discuss further. Andy from Wendron suggested that fixtures should be set to avoid problematic dates such as either end of half terms and Mothers Day, Phil stated that the fixtures are viewable prior to the season starting and that we allow 10 days for clubs to identify any problems to us to solve as early as possible, this system would continue. David Allison from Penzance, agreed this was a good idea, but it is important to have another option available for sickness and holidays. Adam from Liskeard, said that we rely on managers honesty, which does not always work, as some make excuses far too easily. Phil Kellow from Falmouth DC agreed this should be brought in with guidance to overcome those who do make excuses. Jamie Ellott from Newquay questioned the fine of £10, this is mandortory and is automatically sent out for matches which have not been played, if postponement request have been submitted and not approved, then each one is looked at separately and discussed at each monthly committee meeting, and also rescheduled and deleted if necessary. Everyone generally agreed to go forward with the idea to overcome the postponements problems.
League Meetings, as it stand at the moment we have 3 full league meetings set each season which includes the AGM, to which not every club attends, and that we send out fines to those who don’t submit apologies. Do we go with a suggestion of fining all clubs for non attendance whether they send apologies or no, or do we stop setting full league meetings and just have set committee meetings for each month, as we do now, and have them as open meetings where all clubs have the right to attend and observe them if they wish. This was suggested as at the moment all issues get sorted via email, phone and are dealt with as the season goes on, we manage on your behalf, if you feel we aren’t doing our jobs properly then league meetings are necessary, if there are no specific problems then are the full meetings required. If we went with the second option then all the minutes from the committee meetings would be viewable via a link within the website. The AGM would still be needed to approve any rule changes including this one, elect officers and view the accounts. Simon Fisher from Perranwell, spoke to say this could only work if all the minutes were viewable and up to date on the website. No other comments were made.
Development of the Game possible plans from the FA over the next 5 years, Phil attended a meeting at Launceston, lots of issues were discussed most to do with non competitive football up to the age of u12 hopefully been brought in by the FA by 2014, with no league tables. At the moment we run U9 competitive which has no U8s in them, but East Cornwall runs U9 with U8s in their squads as they are non competitive with no league tables. Adam from Liskeard asked for the possible option of having a non competitive and league run system inplace for under 9s next year. Everyone was asked to go away and discuss this within their clubs, as to determine where we go with this for next season, as competitive leagues in the under 9s exclude players in the under 8s catergory, who can only play in friendlies. Chris Batt from Grasshoppers explained that is why they had to withdraw their u9s team, as most of their players were in the under 8s section. Simon Fisher from Perranwell explained that this would be good for smaller clubs to encourage non competitive grassroot football.
Proposal from the FA to bring in 9 aside football, within age groups up to u11 and u12s over the next 4 to 5 years. It was discussed at great length what value there would be to the teams, how practical it would be for clubs, as some rely on council maintained pitches, how would it be mandated, set up, what funding would be available, for goals pitch alterations.
Adam from Liskeard spoke about the countys push for this in the girls section , he said that there would be possible funding from the Football Foundation, and possibly the FA could have funding too. Andrew from Wendron spoke about his view on the schedule, he thought the timescale was within the next 3 years to progress too, with an advanced stage going to the FA Council during April/May.
Helston thought that there would be no changes next year but it becoming mandatory for the following year, the clubs present were asked who would have problems setting up 9 aside pitches, out of the 11 clubs present 7 would find it difficult, therefore it was agreed more discussion would be needed before we can go further with this. Another point for discussion raised at the FA meeting was the age criteria for each group, the county suggested changing the date cut off, from August to December, this was agreed to be more confusing and everyone thought that the school years would be altered, with players from 2 different school years playing within the same age group, it was thought that they should not change things. A lot of research from players had been submitted to the FA, with the priority been children wanting to play, trying harder to play good football, at the bottom was winning and cups, the dislikes were pressure to win and been shouted at, it was agreed that more should be done to encourage non competitiveness.
It was also discussed has to how many leagues allow dual registrations between age groups, out of the 6 leagues represented 4 leagues do not allow dual registrations, this included us.
All Cornwall League development, at present it has been agreed to run as 2 separate leagues, with both using the website, as regards to the All Cornwall Leagues run by Kernow League it was agreed that if we are to run them again next season then a set of rules must be agreed to and signed by all clubs within these leagues, as too many problems have occurred throughout the season and not been resolved to everyone’s agreement. The other option been reverting to teams coming across from the East League and joining the Kernow League, as they did in previous years, it was agreed by all that the standard of football played in the All Cornwall Leagues was very good, with some very tight matches been played.
Kyle Harvey our Welfare Officer had nothing to report, but just pointed out that he was contactable if needed via the link within the website, and would like to see a link put in for contact from club welfare officers, to contact him directly.
Wendron were once again thanked for hosting our meeting.
The meeting closed at 8.36pm