CHAIRMAN’S REPORT - Kieron Cotter - AGM – WSYL – 5th June 2006

May I welcome you all to the West Surrey Youths League AGM for the end of the 2006 season. This has been my seventh year as your Chairman and I would like to thank the Clubs and our Management Committee for their continued support.

This year we celebrate our 40^th year as a youth football league. When the league was first formed in 1966 it started with 3 teams and 41 players, today we have attracted 450 teams which will give us a playing membership of over 7000.

The commitment shown by your Management team remains faultless and I am delighted to report that the team for next year remains virtually unchanged.

It is their commitment that ensures the league runs efficiently, it is not only football excellence that we all strive to achieve but also the administration in managing the league.

I am sure that you would agree with me that the management team deserve a very big thank you for all their time and commitment.

Because of our commitment to promote youth football and any monies generated we

wish to reinvest back into youth football and for next season and for the foreseeable future we view that the best course of action is to promote football at the very grass roots. This being mini football, this year, we are making football for the under 7’s and 8’s free from any joining fee and registration fees, the only proviso is that the players are registered before 30^th June

For the under 9’s to under 11’s there is a joining fee of only £10 and again free registrations for those registered before 30^th June.

For the 11 a-side football teams there is a joining fee of £20 and again a reduced registration fee of £2 per player instead of £3 per played if the registrations are received before 31^st July.

We would like to encourage you all to enter your mini soccer teams into this league and I can think of no other league with our expertise that offers free football. One of the main features that we try to achieve is to regionlise the divisions, this assists greatly with your teams travelling time to their fixtures. Regionalisation can only be achieved if we attract more teams from Surrey.

In addition we continue will continue our ‘Fun Day’ for the under sevens and although the weather was not kind to us this year it still attracted over 180 players.

Presentation day on Sunday 21 May last was extremely successful and well supported. For all those who attended in setting up the trophies and organising the teams a very big thank you, it was a long day but a very rewarding day. The management here at Imber Court estimated that over 3500 people attended throughout the day.

Earlier this year we sent out letters to a number of clubs, highlighting their poor sportsmanship marks. Those clubs were warned that unless there was a marked improvement they would be required to attend a Management hearing where it would be decided if they were to be allowed to reapply for membership for the coming season. Those of you who have visited our web site will have seen the decisions we came to.

This season again saw tremendous successes in the County Cups. We were finalists in the Surrey County Cups in every age group from 11 – 18 and we were champions in the under 11, 12, 13 , 14, and 16. In addition we were Southern County inter league premier champions in the under 11, 13, 14 and 15.

We were also the inter league county cup champions in the under 10’s.

I think those results speaks volumes.

As you can see from the proposed rule changes this season we will also be organising football for under 21’s, we see this as a natural progression and again would encourage all clubs to seriously consider entering teams as we are extremely keen to promote this. It’s an exciting prospect to be able to provide football from under 7 to under 21.

With this extension of the age group sees a slight change of name, we have advanced from the West Surrey catchment area to the whole of Surrey and it our wish to make playing football more regionalised to accommodate all the teams and to reduce the travelling time. Again we seek your support in this venture.

May I thank you for your continued support and I continue to be extremely proud to be able to represent the WSYL. May I wish you all a well earned rest this summer and my very best wishes to you, your families and to all your teams, and the very best of luck for the coming season.

………………………………................

Kieron Cotter

05//06/2006