Cheshire FA's annual League Development Day aims to help our leagues facilitate the sharing of the challenges they regularly face and connect with the County FA and national FA to develop solutions to increase participation and raise standards in the grassroots game.

The morning session featured two workshops, one tailored for adult leagues and one for youth leagues.

Cheshire FA Senior Football Development Officer, Adam Doyle led the delivery to the adult league representatives, hosting the 'Revitalise the game' workshop, emphasising the importance of adapting to change.  The modern expectations of adult players were discussed, supported by Holly Tyrer, Research and Insight Manager at The FA, who delivered an engaging presentation on the adult football universe.

Some potential solutions shared for revitalising the adult game included providing flexible kick off times, reducing the regularity of club meetings and using social media to promote league business and create further engagement.

The morning workshop for youth leagues was titled 'Refreshing the game' - led by Cheshire FA County Development Manager, Paul Kelsall and Cheshire FA Football Development Officer for Children and Young People, James Self - focussing on the recent changes to the structure of grassroots youth football.

The workshop examined the offers youth leagues currently have for their teams and explored the challenges which they regularly face. Various resources were launched and shared on the day to support the leagues such as the Cheshire FA Youth Review guidance video and information on coach education stand down weekends and league Respect evenings.

The afternoon workshops were again delivered separately for adult and youth leagues and concentrated on how they can get ahead of the game with the implementation of technology. With the immanent launch of online player registration through the Whole Game System, Phil Knight and Danny McConnell from the FA Technology team provided an introduction to the player registration functionality and information on how leagues and clubs can benefit from using it. 

The session outlined that online player registration will replicate the existing paper based system yet will reduce the amount of administration considerably, and that any leagues which choose to sign up to the process will be provided with bespoke support from Cheshire FA Regulations & Registrations Support Officer, Damon Traverse.

The other workshop delivered in the afternoon was on the Whole Game System and how since its introduction it has continually improved and extended functionality to support clubs and leagues. Garry Polkey, Cheshire FA Compliance and Regulation Manager, gave a refresher on the league sanctioning process, discipline procedures and the future for WGS, underlining the fact that each of the functions are now processed online.

Cheshire FA General Manager, Steve Stewart, closed the day, which had provided great learning opportunities for all parties and organisations represented.

Adam Doyle, Cheshire FA Senior Football Development Officer said:  "A huge thank you must go to all the league representatives who attended the event and gave up their time to not only improve their own standards but those of grassroots football in Cheshire as a consequence.

"Over 3,500 teams play within one of our 28 affiliated league structures in the county, therefore it's imperative to maintain a close working relationship with our leagues and work together, continuing our shared purpose of growing and sustaining participation across the county by modern and relevant means."

If you would like more information regarding the content of the day please contact Adam Doyle at adam.doyle@cheshirefa.com or on 01606 871166.