Walking Football At It's Best – WFLA Announce Winners, Runners Up and 3rd Placed Teams for 2024 WFLA National Cup Finals

This year was the second occasion that the WFLA held their National Cup for teams who are members of FA affiliated leagues and whose leagues are affiliated to the WFLA. We had 295 original entrants and 34 teams contested the Finals.

The Finals were held at the Redditch Utd FC’s Valley Stadium, and many thanks must go to the staff there, who were a tremendous help in making the events go according to plan. All the feedback over the weekend and the days following have all been highly complimentary about the facilities and staff at the Valley Stadium.

The weekends events were a great success and judging by the testimonials on social media and those received by email (see below), it seems that everyone had a tremendous weekend’s walking football. The weather wasn’t the best we have seen at Redditch, but everyone seemed to enjoy the occasion.

Thanks to Mick Hill, Tony Norton, Derek Murr and the support from Colin Strong and Mandy Norton. All put in lots of time and effort to make the event a success. Thanks also to the National Walking Football Alliance (‘NWFA’) who sponsored the trophies for this competition. The St John Ambulance team in attendance were called upon with three players suffering various injuries or health problems.

Last, but certainly not least, we mustn’t forget our band of Referees, who received many compliments on their officiating from the competing teams and on social media. No event could succeed without strong refereeing and it must be said that the officials this weekend were some of the best in the Country. Thanks to: Dave Bent, Mick Hill, Matthew Howells, Stan Jackson, Mick Lowley, Stuart Saint and Dave Wilkin.

The teams in the Finals were from all corners of England and Wales. All WFLA competitions are sanctioned by the FA and all member leagues are affiliated to the National Governing Body, the Football Association.

There was some top level football played over the weekend and more importantly it was played in the correct spirit. For this competition we started with the 2023 FA LOTG, so decided that these would be used throughout the 2024 competition.

The 2024 winners, runners up, and third placed were:

Finally, a massive thanks to our outgoing Referees Appointments Officer and Vice Chairman, Mick Hill. Mick has done a fantastic job and although no one is irreplaceable, he will be a hard act to follow. Mick wants to devote more time to his club Grimsby Corinthians, and understandably to his family.

Thankfully, we will not be losing Mick entirely, he has agreed to become the WFLA Consultant Life Member and no doubt we will be asking his advice from time to time.

Finally, congratulations to all those who took part, it was a brilliant example of what walking football is all about.