Cheers, it has taken about 5 years but it feels worth it as we've got up with a lot of the same lads.

Durham Fa have said no dark colored shirts incase it clashes with refs, maybe their bored n just fancy bringing in a chewy rule change to annoy teams who have dark kits


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Jesus Christ. I always made a point of buying dark shirts as they were easier to clean.

Durham fa again proving what massive bellends they are.

Aye your right mate, doing it with the group of lads who have always been there is great. Sure better than one of those teams who set up with a load of lads who have been playing in the prem

I was shocked to hear last night that some of the Southern FA's charge around £300 for affiliation fee's! Durham only charge £28, if it becomes a national standard affiliation fee you could probably say goodbye to Hartlepool Sunday League.

The irony is durham fa are trying to bring in new rules to get more people playing footy then their bosses at Wembley are trying to get teams to shell out more money.

pitch fees + affiliation fees at the moment come to £490 and that is killing teams, add an extra £100 on that to make it a standardised fee plus pitch fees to local council and you may aswell pack up and go home.

It's just pure greed by the FA, probably still trying to reclaim money from Wembley.

that's all it boils down too, it was only a matter of time before it found its way down to the kids league and grass roots for adults.

shame really as the leagues are very strong in Hartlepool but in a few years with the committee getting older and the costs going up its in serious danger of not being here.

The young lads will have to step into their shoes if they want local football to continue.

Congratulations on the promotion!

Did you see this?

http://www.clubwebsite.co.uk/news/2014/ ... ion-drops/

I am amazed that anyone wasnt aware that participation in Football had dropped.

Every year that passes there are less kids teams, and less numbers in the squads of those teams remaining.

In 1980 Hartlepool at every age group had two divisions of 14 teams.

Now there are at most 4 teams at every age group.

Thats a drop in 30 years of 24 teams at every age group.

In 20 years time you will be lucky to see 20 adult teams remaining at the current rate.

And some of you still dont see the issue at School football level. But there again, some just refuse to open their eyes.

Same with everything though, look at the amount of cricket that was being played in the Town 25 years ago compared to now. I think the first time I played against men was in the Church League.

Yup, thats right as well.

But it does all go back to the schools. There is NO schools cricket now.......................except maybe at the Elite Academy.

Though they dont have a cricket pitch there either.

Schools football is on its arse, yes please wake up to that, and there is no Junior football leagues in the town.

If they dont play at 14 they certainly wont play at 24.

It's certainly not something new though it was the case 20 years ago when I was at school.

It's not that I refuse to open my eyes or do anything about it dibble, I'm just not sure what you expect n a few others on here to do about it.

I'm a 29 year old man with no kids in the senior school system, am I meant to just charge into schools, knock on the heads door n demand he changes the school football system cos dibble told me it's shite?

When I went to henry smiths we played friendlies in an A team and a B team, our year group produced John Brackstone, and the year above his brother Stephen, we also had a lad in my year at Sunderland and another who had a trial at Birmingham, so we done alright, we had PE twice a week n only done footy in the winter. I enjoyed it, I don't know how it could have been improved.

I can only comment on the issues at effect the leagues I play in, which is sunday morning, I cant change the youths system, sorry dibbs.

The main issues with adult footy I think is cost, and pubs closing which teams use to support them and pay the fees.

People as Adults have far more options and demands on time these days.

It's not like it used to be when a man was expected to play footy on a Sunday morning drink a gallon of beer after then have his dinner ready for him before he fell asleep on the couch.

Times change, I 'm sure kids are still as into sport they also have more choice now though of activities. Is the interest and availability of adults that has declined and it has very little to do with schools.

Can't argue with that. I started playing in 2000 when the "go-to-the-pub-all-day" brigade was still doing strong, and you got the feeling going to the pub was equally as important as the game.

the shift in attitudes over the next 10 years was massive, as young lads played who just done different things than sit in a social club all day, went out the Saturday night instead and recovered sunday or went out with the mrs.

I did something about it.

I went to St Hilds and demanded a meeting with the head. For my sons benefit.

I argued for ages with him.

Eventually one of the male Maths teachers agreed to run the team.

Without that meeting there would have been no team at their age group

My team can win the league tonight with victory over pearl bar on greyfields.

Get yourself along, our keepers skinny as.

how much is it to get in?

Is there a bar?

The words presented may not be the ones inputted ..Thanks Tapatalk

Free in and yes 2 bars at each end connected to the posts

Nice 8-2 to win the league. Canny season we've had.

you mean promoted or actually won league? looking at fixtures it seems glass can still draw level if they beat you in last game, which will result in a play off game for champions.

Rule change this season, goals win prizes so they can't catch us there thankfully

GD thankfully comes into it this year

never realised they'd changed the rules and I'm surprised they have especially the way games get shortened at times. congratulations then, was hoping for a play off game to watch if I'm honest though can't beat a winner takes all game.

Yeah them play off games where always pretty exciting, I'll settle for this though

Congratulations marra! been a long process, but you finally got there, onwards and upwards from now on. Good set of lads the RAFA, enjoy their football without being arses and now it has paid dividends.

Agree with horden! Great set of lads and a pleasure to play against. Well done mate? On for the double?

I'd have laughed you out of the school.

Well done to you and your lads Mr.Yubep!!!!

Hope so. Cup final may 18th

Cheers mate, it's took a while to bring the squad up n the policy of only signing canny lads off the field as well as on it has paid off.

In the process of passing the reigns of Pearl Bar over to another lad... Potential new ventures for me after Sunday involving another team.

Which team, and are you looking for players?

Raby Arms by the looks of it, was just asked the other day by a lad I know who is taking over. Not sure regarding players yet, doing training on Sunday I think.

What division are they in?

I suppose I could check but its quicker to ask.

Div 2

Is that the division above Darlo99RedBalloons????

Another problem is, there's so much more for kids and players young and old, to fill their time with these days, personally I think the standard of most leagues has dropped compared to bygone days because of this and numerous other issues...

I don't.

35 teams finished the season, not bad really

Congrats on your promotion Phil

Diificult for you to know that. You arent old enough to have been around when the sunday was a truly outstanding league. And it was in the 80's, with Lion Hotel, Blackhall, BelleVue Club. Lion and Blackhall were full of players that had played professionally.

And most of the top teams had Northern league players throughout their teams.

Strange meeting last night, bit concerned for the future of sunday football in this town.

7 teams have dropped out this season, taking it down to just 33 teams.

If teams keep dropping out at this rate, in a few years time I don't think we will have any adult football at all in this town n that will be a shame.

Who's dropped out m8, which divisions?

Aye it's becoming a bit worrying. It feels like clubs are not getting value for money in what they pay for each season, especially pitch fees, a £50 rebate each season from the FA is the most we see back. The Pearl Bar were actually close to folding until one of the lads has decided to take the reins, unsure what my future holds in sunday league at the minute.

Engineers and Greensides last night and quite a few dropped out throughout the season

Its a sad indictment of society now that this is happening.

But i take you back to what I have been saying for months.

Take a look at Junior Football.

http://www.tjfa.co.uk/

A good look, without the blinkers on that some like to wear.

Have a look at the under 18 section. The section where you might expect the next group of players to come through to the sunday leagues.

Think you will find there are just 4 teams from Hartlepool.

Then look at the under 16 section. Thats the next lot of potential sunday league players.

Only 2 teams from Hartlepool.

Thats how few kids are still playing football in this town.

Its also not unreasonable to suggest that these kids are the cream of the crop, and the better players will have higher ambitions than to play Sunday league........no disrepect intended.......but the better players at under 18 level now, will be aiming for the Northern league.

Doesnt leave many coming through.

Add to the fact that having watched loads of sunday football this season, I think the standard generally has dropped markedly.........to the point that there seems to be some right head cases playing that dont belong on a sports field.

Any kid watching some of it, will surely aim higher?

Oh, and it will be a huge culture shock to any kid leaving the TJFA league to join the sunday league, as its like the football equivalent of the land that time forgot.

You rarely see bad tackles at Junior football level, yet in the Sunday league there appears to be players sent off regularly..............and dodgy high tackles from behind are the order of the day.

I can't remember them all from this season but joes mentioned the 2 from last night.

The engineers owe a canny bit in fines to Durham n I know a bit of that is from 2 lads sent off against us who probably haven't paid.,

Durham n the league need to work together to look into this as it isn't fair if clubs are being punished for a lad not paying his fine, their is only so much a club can do and if a lad on minimum wage or unemployed gets fined £40 n can't pay it all of refuses to pay why should the team suffer?

I think money is a big stumbling block for teams these days, prices of footy kits are extortionate, prices of pitch fees n fines go up every year, it's all money n greed that people like myself n joe who run teams probably think it's very difficult to raise for little reward.

Durham and the Fa need to wake up n look at ways of keeping teams going not trying to line their own pockets or recoup money from wembley.


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Its not just Hartlepool either. Its this whole region.

Have a look at the current Football pyramid system.

In this region its stops at level 11. The wearside league.

In many of the other regions it goes down as far as level 20 and beyond.

Now I know its a geographical thing as well, but there are just so many other teams lads to play for elsewhere......all at a higher standard than Sunday league.

What's level 11 mean? What's level 20?




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so Mr Yubep

Does that mean we will get the stupid situation of three divisions of 11 teams, meaning a league season of just 20 games?

If so, then thats another nail in the coffin.

The Junior leagues have gone the same way. Lose a game and its almost season over.