A Message from the League Secretary

On 16th March due to the Coronavirus pandemic crisis, The FA imposed a cessation of all ‘grassroots’ football, which obviously included SMCCFL. This preceded the Government putting the UK into ‘lockdown’ on 23rd March. Subsequently on 26th March, The FA announced that all grassroots football is concluded (terminated) for the 2019/20 season. The FA then provided grassroots leagues with support and advice on how to close out/conclude the terminated season. That is, what to do with our league/divisions (champions, promotions, relegations etc) as well as our Cup and Trophy.

The FA allowed Leagues only two options for league competitions:
1. League competitions brought to an immediate end, with results expunged - effectively to 'null and void' the season. No champions, promotions or relegations.
2. Final league (division) tables determined by a ‘Points per Game’ (PPG) calculation.

The SMCCFL decision was to adopt Option 2, this was determined by a vote of all SMCCFL teams with 74% in favour of Option 2.

So, with final league tables for the 2019/20 season determined by the Points Per Game calculation, this means:

Division 1:
Champions St Michael’s Trinity
Division 2:
Champions Westwood Blue
Also promoted Spacious Place
Division 3:
Champions St Mary’s Astbury
Also promoted Westwood

Congratulations to the three winning teams, in particular St Michael’s Trinity, and also the promoted teams. Relegations will not be finalised until it is known how many teams will be in SMCCFL next season, it will depend on any team resignations and new teams joining which will determine size of the divisions.

It is not possible to show the final league tables on our website using the PPG approach. If you wish to see the final PPG league tables, please contact your team Manager or Club Secretary who will be able to send you a spreadsheet.

The three divisional winners have agreed NOT to have players winners medals this season. They have agreed that this season it doesn’t feel appropriate to award medals, given the anti-climax of our early terminated season and the way the Champions have been determined (ie part maths, not all playing football). Instead, St Michael’s suggested and it was agreed by all three winners, to use the money that we would have spent on medals to donate to a Christian medical or aid charity that is working on the Coronavirus pandemic response. With this medals money, adding a bit of excess SMCCFL funds and additional donations by two of our Clubs (St Michael’s and Macclesfield Parish), SMCCFL has made a £600 donation to the Christian Aid “Coronavirus Emergency Appeal” to support their work in the poorest countries in the world.

Unlike The FA decision that all grassroots league competitions are terminated, the FA are allowing Leagues to complete cup competitions when football re-starts/next season. Although a final decision on this has not been made for SMCCFL, our intention is that we should complete our Cup and Trophy Semi Finals and Final when next season resumes, provided we can do so without delay or disruption to the start of next season. We think that this means the semi-finals and finals would have to be played in pre-season, in consecutive weeks. The feasibility of this is likely to depend on when we are allowed to re-start playing competitive football.

Currently, we don't know when we will be able to re-start playing competitive football - when the Government and/or the FA will allow us to, when it will be safe to play competitive contact sports. There is obviously a high likelihood that season 2020/21 will not be able to start as usual in early September. This makes it difficult to plan for next season, but we will keep SMCCFL member Clubs informed and involved in the planning for next season.