Dev Posted March 8, 2022 Share Posted March 8, 2022 (edited) www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/sport/summer-amateur-football-in-ross-shire-and-inverness-faces-be-268133/ Summer amateur football in Inverness and Ross-shire faces being scrapped as association can't fill key roles By Will Clark - will.clark@hnmedia.co.uk Published: 19:00, 07 March 2022 SUMMER amateur football in Inverness and Ross-shire could be scrapped as it is feared not enough people are willing to come forward to organise the 2022 season. The Inverness and District Football Association (IDFA) face cancelling this year’s competition after it was revealed it has failed to fill five key positions on its committee. A total of 29 teams from Inverness and Ross-shire, with a reported 900 registered players, had signed up to play in three divisions, with the season due to start on Monday, April 11. But with only five weeks until the amateur football season is due to start, five key roles on the IDFA committee have not been filled and are required to do so before the season can be played. The positions include league secretary, minute secretary, match secretary, registration secretary and treasurer. League spokesman and Maryburgh secretary Donnie Stuart says after the failure to fill key roles at a meeting on Sunday, there is a real danger there will be no amateur football played in Inverness or Ross-shire this summer. He says if that happens, it will leave almost 1000 players on the sidelines. “All the clubs that entered the league attended the meeting,” he said. “But when it came to filling the main positions, that didn’t happen. “It was like silent night for 45 minutes and they were warned three weeks ago that existing committee members were standing down. “But there was a lack of interest and I said to the clubs do you realise you will put 900 people out of football?” He added: “We are not talking about one position, we are talking about five or six positions. “We need people to step forward, but I have a feeling it won’t happen. “If the positions aren’t filled, there is a severe chance there will not be an Inverness District Football Association. “I would hate to see the IDFA close down, it would be horrendous for football here.” Stuart says it is planned to hold another meeting on Sunday to try and find new people to take over the positions. But he doesn’t hold out much hope. “They were talking about this Sunday about having another meeting,” he said. “But my opinion is how will one meeting make a difference? If they weren’t going to do it previously, why would they change their mind at the next meeting? “Unless they get these positions filled, there will be no amateur football.” If the IDFA is forced to close down, no Inverness or Ross-shire teams would be eligible to enter the Highland Amateur Cup. Stuart says that would be disastrous for the competition. He said: “Twenty-five of the 29 teams in the IDFA have applied to play in the Highland Amateur Cup this year. But if those teams aren’t affiliated to a league association, then they will not be able to compete in the Highland Amateur Cup.” Edited March 8, 2022 by Dev . 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted March 8, 2022 Share Posted March 8, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, Dev said: The positions include league secretary, minute secretary, match secretary, registration secretary and treasurer. Can anyone give a brief breakdown on what these roles involve and require in terms of skills, knowledge and experience? I've got some spare time but responsibilities at home mean I can't always be available and have next to no admin experience. Hopefully this rules me out as I'm also extremely lazy. Edited March 8, 2022 by welshbairn 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dev Posted March 8, 2022 Author Share Posted March 8, 2022 1 hour ago, welshbairn said: Can anyone give a brief breakdown on what these roles involve and require in terms of skills, knowledge and experience? I've got some spare time but responsibilities at home mean I can't always be available and have next to no admin experience. Hopefully this rules me out as I'm also extremely lazy. Enthusiasm and the ability to read and understand the rule book. Also, these days, it isn't necessary to live locally. The Secretary of the South Midlands League in England lives way outside her League's area and does things via the internet, video conferences, etc. I'd volunteer but I cannot take it on for personal commitments reasons. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted March 8, 2022 Share Posted March 8, 2022 5 hours ago, Dev said: Enthusiasm and the ability to read and understand the rule book. Also, these days, it isn't necessary to live locally. The Secretary of the South Midlands League in England lives way outside her League's area and does things via the internet, video conferences, etc. I'd volunteer but I cannot take it on for personal commitments reasons. Do you have to be handy with spreadsheets, databases and the like? I know my way around a computer apart from that, so if there's dedicated software I'd probably be ok. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dev Posted March 8, 2022 Author Share Posted March 8, 2022 5 hours ago, welshbairn said: Do you have to be handy with spreadsheets, databases and the like? I know my way around a computer apart from that, so if there's dedicated software I'd probably be ok. I guess what is needed depends on the job but it would be worth getting in touch with anyone you know who used to be involved or maybe speak to someone at one of the more established clubs? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted March 8, 2022 Share Posted March 8, 2022 6 minutes ago, Dev said: I guess what is needed depends on the job but it would be worth getting in touch with anyone you know who used to be involved or maybe speak to someone at one of the more established clubs? Cheers, I'll probably just ask them what they need. Hopefully the press stuff has stirred some folk who know what their doing off their arses. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dev Posted March 8, 2022 Author Share Posted March 8, 2022 7 minutes ago, welshbairn said: Cheers, I'll probably just ask them what they need. Hopefully the press stuff has stirred some folk who know what their doing off their arses. Good luck. I hope something is sorted out even if the Ross-shire clubs go their own way. There would still be enough teams from the Inverness district for two Summer Divisions. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhaleOilBeefHucked Posted March 9, 2022 Share Posted March 9, 2022 20 hours ago, welshbairn said: Do you have to be handy with spreadsheets, databases and the like? I know my way around a computer apart from that, so if there's dedicated software I'd probably be ok. I have done similar roles in the past for the Forres and Nairn Welfare, a brief overview is. Association secretary - Understand the Scottish and Inverness Association rule books, specifically any player registration restrictions around players that have played at a higher level and suspensions. Organise and publicise meetings. I also took minutes from the meetings and published after the meeting. Match secretary - Set fixture list, cup draws and assign referees. You can google tools to create fixture lists and then fit them into the required dates. Normally get a list of referees available from the local referees associations, I used to ask for dates anyone was planning to go on holiday and fit fixtures around. Book any council pitches if the teams don't do this themselves. Collate match results and league tables, can use excel or there are tools available on-line to populate the tables. Registration secretary - populate player details onto the SFA web based registration system. Also a good idea to populate a spreadsheet to track goals and bookings with all the players. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherrif John Bunnell Posted March 14, 2022 Share Posted March 14, 2022 The amateur league has been saved. Fair play to the folk that have stepped up to run things. Delighted to announce that following an EGM last night, a new committee for the IDFA was formed and attention now turns to ensuring preparations for the summer season go ahead and looking to start the new season on Monday 11th April. We have 28 teams entered this year as follows: PREMIER DIVISION Ardersier Avoch Black Rock Rovers Contin Culloden Blacksmiths IRN Security Loch Ness Maryburgh Tomatin 1ST DIVISION Balloan Black Isle Conon Bridge Drakies Hill Rovers Innes CI Invergordon SC Inverness Athletic NMM Sam's 2ND DIVISION Clachnacuddin Ferrybache Fortrose & Rosemarkie Union G16 United Gellions Highland Athletic Highland Hospice Ness Thistle Ness City Tomatin Utd We also return to having our four cups - the three divisional cups and the Association Cup, which are all to be straight knock out formats. The draws for these were made in full last night and will go up in due course. 24 of our teams have also intimated their intention to enter the Highland Amateur Cup - full details of the draw will be posted once the Highland Executive have had their AGM and the cup draw. The best of lick to all teams going forward this season and in particularly to the new committee as well. A thankless task doing these voluntary positions in amateur football ( or any local sport) but things cannot go ahead without these people who are giving up their free time in order that all these 28 teams and their players get to play football this summer once again. Glad to be sharing some positive news for football in the area once again, rather than a doom & gloom story. Good luck to everyone involved this season and hopefully it will be a cracking season! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dev Posted March 14, 2022 Author Share Posted March 14, 2022 Good news! Any idea where the information came from? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherrif John Bunnell Posted March 14, 2022 Share Posted March 14, 2022 56 minutes ago, Dev said: Good news! Any idea where the information came from? From their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invernessanddistrictfa 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcruic Posted January 14, 2023 Share Posted January 14, 2023 (edited) Their Facebook page has now been deleted - this was their only web presence as far as I know. They seem to have played a winter league this year after the main summer season was finished (Highland Hospice FC has results from 7 matches, suggesting there were maybe 8 teams in it). Edited January 14, 2023 by mcruic 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairWeatherFan Posted January 14, 2023 Share Posted January 14, 2023 (edited) 6 hours ago, mcruic said: Their Facebook page has now been deleted - this was their only web presence as far as I know. They seem to have played a winter league this year after the main summer season was finished (Highland Hospice FC has results from 7 matches, suggesting there were maybe 8 teams in it). That page from above is still there for me. And the most recent update is from 3 days ago looking for teams for the new season. Includes the secretary's email if you want some more information. I'm sure they'd be happy to oblige. Edited January 14, 2023 by FairWeatherFan 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcruic Posted January 14, 2023 Share Posted January 14, 2023 (edited) Cheers, they must be one of those couple of pages that block me for offering corrections to scores. The page works if I log out of Facebook. In any case,they didn't publish a single result. It seems to have been an 8-team single round robin league, with a couple of extra matches on 4th December. Just a few results I couldn't find. Edited January 14, 2023 by mcruic 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spyro Posted January 15, 2023 Share Posted January 15, 2023 14 hours ago, mcruic said: Inverness Amateur League scores on Tha’ Internet!!! People have done life for less…. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcruic Posted January 19, 2023 Share Posted January 19, 2023 Got a reply as well - season was stopped halfway and some teams just played friendlies instead. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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