John McCulloch with Raphael Zoldan 8, Rafiq Khaleel 10, and Danny Cochrane 10, facing the big freeze

Published: 23 May, 2013
by STEVE BARNETT

OUTRAGED football coaches are demanding answers after hundreds of children were frozen out of one of the biggest youth leagues in London.

Organisers from the Camden & Regent’s Park Youth League have introduced a cap limiting the number of teams a club can enter to 18.

League co-ordinator Will Cave insists the move was “regrettable but fair”.

But with players losing places that they filled just weeks ago, angry managers want to know exactly who made the decision and how.

Combined Regent’s Park FC and sister club The Heath have lost 11 places, leaving them with 14 teams next season, a far cry from the 30 places they applied for.

Co-founder of both clubs John McCulloch said: “The league website states that ‘all decisions will be taken in the best interests of the young footballers, the clubs and development of the sport in our community’.

“How is excluding players from the league in their best interests?

“Try telling 110 children that, having played in the league last season, they have now been thrown out. At this short notice any other youth leagues are either full or too far away. Our players are based in Camden, Islington and Westminster and want to play within their communities, where are they going to go?”

The league is set to increase yet again over the summer, rising from approximately 200 to 230 teams ahead of the 2013-14 season. Mr Cave is adamant that a cap is the fairest result for all the clubs involved.

“The league has continued to grow and become more and more popular so it’s with great regret that we’ve introduced a cap,” he said. “But we simply don’t have the pitches or the changing facilities.

“Yes some kids who played in the league last season will miss out but all we’re trying to do is make it fair on all clubs and ensure that any one club isn’t monopolising the league.

“We couldn’t continue to take three or four teams in any one age group from the same club.”

Mr Cave also insisted that there were still ways for teams to maximise their matches. “What we would stress is there isn’t a cap on how many players a team has in their squad,” he added.

“With a roll-on roll-off substitute system even though clubs have less teams there’s still space for more players.”

Explaining where the pitches they do have available will be going, Mr Cave said: “We’ll have four more clubs from Camden and Islington next season making up some new teams.

“We’ve also divided the places we have available more fairly between the existing clubs.

“The cap will also allow us to strengthen our Under-6s and Under-7s development age groups, and introduce a new girls’ coaching programme for eight to 13-year-olds.”

Academy Football Club founder Liton Shah said he was happy to get five of the seven places he applied for.

But, he added, it was vital to know who ran the league and who was responsible for making the big decisions.

“There’s still children who are not playing football and that can’t be right. You can’t call yourself a community league if you’re excluding young people from it.

“If it’s a community league every club should have their say and at the moment that’s not happening. We don’t know exactly who is on the committee and who is making the key decisions.”

Mr Cave was more than happy to name his fellow committee members, who include Ash Rahman, sports development officers Abul Koyar and Sophie Sparrow, Tony Louki from the West Euston Partnership and David Ellis from the Royal Parks.

“The league is run by sports development professionals – a well-respected team who have spent countless hours on the touchline and know what is best for the league.

“The league is run for the clubs, not by the clubs, and it always has been.

“We still listen to the clubs, and try our best to implement their ideas,” he said.