This year was the third occasion the WFLA held their annual Inter League Cup. Unfortunately and disappointingly a few teams withdrew from the Inter League Cup in various age categories, some at the very last moment, causing many problems with the fixtures.
However the weekends’ events were a great success and judging by the testimonials on social media and those received by email, it seems that everyone had a tremendous weekends walking football. The brilliant weather made the conditions hot for players and officials but everyone seemed to keep themselves hydrated.
Many thanks must go to the staff at Redditch Utd FC, our venue at the Valley Stadium, who were a tremendous help in making the events go according to plan, especially Liz who served in the snack bar all day.
All the feedback on the day and the days following have all been highly complimentary about the facilities and staff at the Valley Stadium and we all look forward to hosting the WFLA League Champions Cup in June and the WFLA National Cup finals here in September 2024.
No football events would happen without the referees and we had some excellent officials on board for the weekend, well done guys. The comments on social media regarding your officiating were well deserved. Our band of referees were, Dave Bent, Paddy Docherty, Mick Hill, Matt Howells, Stan Jackson and Mike Willmore.
This wouldn’t have been the success it was without Mick Hill the WFLA Referee Appointments Officer; our Chairman Tony Norton, who also organises the England Walking Football Community (EWFC), the foremost organisation in England international walking football. Also, last but certainly not least, our Treasurer, Derek Murr; Tony’s wife Mandy Norton who did an excellent job on the day recording all the scores and tables; and Colin Strong for his help setting up the pitches. We also wish to thank the St. John’s Ambulance team for being in attendance for providing the WFLA with medical cover and they will be at all of our ‘Finals’ this year.
The teams in the competitions were from all corners of England and Wales. All WFLA competitions are sanctioned by a local FA and all member leagues are affiliated to the only National Governing Body, the Football Association.
As the standard of walking football increases year on year, there were some top class football played over the weekend and more importantly it was played in the correct spirit. The quality of the goalkeepers in all age categories needed to be seen, some absolutely excellent displays.
In the over 50’s, a special mention must be made to Durham County FA WFL who started the day with a bare squad of six. In their first fixture they were down to five players and remarkably they remained unbeaten to top their group. They won the groups semi final and were beaten in a great final versus Surrey FA WFL. A great achievement lads.
Also congratulations to the Greater Manchester over 70’s’ team who have won this age category for three consecutive years.
The Winners and Runners were:
All pictures are in our ‘Gallery’.
A Referee’s Review
It looks like it was 64 games played over the weekend at Redditch and to my knowledge the first event of such a size to use the newly amended FA Laws of the game for WF. We had 29 matches with no penalties being awarded for not walking offences. We had 25 matches were one penalty was awarded for a culmination of 4 team ‘running’ offences. We had 10 matches where 2 penalties were awarded for culminations of 4 team ‘running’ offences. So no doubt some teams will have had their progression in the tournament halted by the fact that at times their players ‘ran’ too often and its important to remember that when you consider how the fixtures panned out over the weekend. It wasn’t because the referees awarded penalties. There aren’t many conclusions that can be drawn from the weekends games other than there is now a proper sanction if your team continues to break Law 18 by not walking. We as Referees need to work smarter and harder to level out the consistency of decision making as we move forward and I’m hopeful that the messages delivered in the new FA WF Referees courses will aid this greatly. I would ask everyone to consider the amendment and what it is looking to achieve and that is for players to stop offending against Law 18 so that we can all enjoy a safer , slower playing environment. It is not looking for more penalties etc just to slow players down. It will take some time to see whether it has any effect or not but please view it with an open mind or if you were part of a team that lost a match or a point because of a team ‘running’ penalty being awarded then next time out reconsider the need to run to intercept or run to shoot etc. because it may no longer be worth it. A fantastic weekend with the players being superb almost throughout.
Mick Hill, WFLA Referee Appointments and FA Liaison Officer
