CHIDDINGFOLD FOOTBALL CLUB THIRD TEAM PLANS

Gentlemen,

We have a fantastic problem.

We currently have 61 players registered for First and Second Teams. Assuming 3 subs per team, this means that 33 players are going to be left out every week.

Even allowing for the fact that some of the ‘surplus’ players may not want to play every week, that still leaves an awful lot of frustrated, hacked off, excellent players.

They include guys in their thirties and forties who have given a lot to the club over many years and have been used to playing regularly. They quite rightly see no reason why they should not carry on for many years to come.

They also include a lot of young guys who have been used to playing regularly for the U17’s, in some cases since they were under seven. They may not yet be strong enough to play regularly for the men’s, but they are the future of the club, and need experience.

Here is a breakdown of registered players according to age range:

Aged under 20: 21 players (36%)

Aged 21-29: 10 players (17%)

Aged 30-39: 18 players (30%)

Aged 40 and over: 10 players (17%)

So we have quite an unbalanced situation, where the 21-29 year olds, who should really be the mainstay of the two teams, only make up 17% of the players; under 20-year-olds make up 36%, and over-30’s 48%.

You can see the managers’ dilemma. They want to pick the best team, but they also want to prepare for the future (and many of those under-20’s are not going to university either).

Lionel particularly has a problem. Neil will pick his best team for the Firsts, then ask Lionel to play the guys Neil hasn’t got room for. Which gives Lionel even less room for manoeuvre, forcing him to leave out a lot of good players who understandably get hacked off with him. (And he wears a ridiculous hat.)

And in 18 months time, the current U15’s will be joining the happy throng.

The committee debated this for an hour last week.

Hence, we are proposing to start up a Third Team.

Rumour has it that Jose Mourinho is pretending to be interested in the England job, to try and pressurize us into making him an offer. Him aside, we are seeking offers from anyone within the club for their views and support and have already received a couple from certain persons who are willing to lead the Third’s formation and help get things going.

It’s obviously too late to join a proper league this season, but there are quite a few teams around who would like to play friendlies. We want to organise regular friendlies.

Then the plan for next season is to join a proper league.

There will be a problem with fixture congestion on the Coxcombe Lane pitch. So we will be exploring various options:

  • We may be able to play at Dunsfold, who only run one team.

  • Or we could play all away matches.

  • We’re also planning to get basic portakabin-style changing facilities at Combe Lane, so we could use the top pitch on a Saturday afternoon (the Parish Council are sympathetic and could help with funding).

We’ll be approaching you all between now and Christmas to find out who would be interested, both this season and next.

So, those of you who have been hacked off at not playing regularly, please bear with us. We are committed to doing our utmost to give you all as much football as we possibly can.

The Committee

9th December 2007