SOUTH WALES ALLIANCE FOOTBALL LEAGUE www.southwalesallianceleague.co.uk SWAL NEWSLETTER - MARCH 2021 FAW UPDATE 12 March 2021 Please see below a statement related to Welsh Government’s announcement that came out this lunchtime to be shared with your respective leagues. The Welsh Government have today (12 March) provided details on how the country will move out of lockdown over the coming weeks. If the public health conditions continue to be favourable, organised outdoor activities for children will resume from 27 March. If this is the case, football activity for Under 18s will return from this date. The FAW are awaiting clarification from Welsh Government on specific restrictions that may be in place for football activity to return for Under 18s and updated Return to Play protocols will be communicated as soon as possible. The latest changes do not directly allow the JD Cymru North and JD Cymru South to begin their limited league season. Therefore, the FAW is currently awaiting clarification from the National Sport Group as to whether their ‘Elite Status’ designation will be reinstated. Regards Ale www.faw.cymru/en/news/some-football-activity-resume-following-lockdown-review Obviously this news is disappointing - if not expected - however once any further updates are received these will be forward onto clubs ASAP. The FAW & SWAL urges everyone to follow the Welsh Government guidelines during the lockdown to limit the spread of COVID-19. gov.wales/local-lockdown www.faw.cymru/en/covid-19/ Chief Executive of the Association Leaves Post The Football Association of Wales can confirm that Jonathan Ford will step down from his position as Chief Executive of the Association on 31 March 2021. Since Mr Ford’s appointment in 2009, the FAW’s profile in European and World football has greatly increased and there has been significant improvements in world class facilities including the National Training and Development Centres at Dragon Park, Newport and Colliers Park, Wrexham and the new National Elite Centre and FAW Head Quarters at Hensol, near Cardiff. During his tenure, Wales has hosted several prestigious events such as the UEFA Women's U19 European Championships in 2013, the UEFA Super Cup Final in 2014 and the women’s and men’s Champions League Finals in 2017. The men’s national team reached the semi-finals of EURO 2016 and secured back-to-back EURO qualification for the first time ever and were promoted to the top division of the UEFA Nations League in 2020 as group winners. The FAW would like to place on record its gratitude to Mr Ford for his efforts over the Jonathan Ford past 11 years and wish him all the best for future endeavours. www.faw.cymru/en/news/faw-statement-jonathan-ford/ ✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧ SW ALLIANCE LEAGUE - INFORMATION The SWAL League Management Board are delighted to welcome Steve Paterson (representing Ely Rangers) and Rod Powell (representing Nelson Cavaliers) onto the board. The update from the FAW - which followed the Welsh Governments’ update earlier - this has basically stopped all football activity until the end of March when Youth and Junior can restart. Disappointingly this does not make any mention of adult football and when, or if, training could resume. It is still hoped that with the season not officially finishing until 31 May 2021 there may be some scope for inter-club matches. Once, or if, the situation changes should any club wish the SWAL to assist in arranging friendlies on an organised informal basis (and again within the guidelines and protocols) then please let us know. We will be in touch with clubs and referees once we have more information. As usual once this has been agreed we will inform clubs and update the website. All our efforts are now geared towards 2021-2022 season. ✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧ At his present time it is important for everyone to stay safe! SWAL - LEAGUE MANAGEMENT BOARD MEMBERS PROFILE PHIL SWEET SWAL Assistant Secretary (2015) Phil was born in Merthyr Tydfil over half a century ago and grew up supporting Merthyr Tydfil AFC becoming a fixture at home and away matches for many years being fortunate enough to witness the Club's golden period in the late 1980s when they won the Welsh Cup and reached the GM Vauxhall Conference. When the club's well publicised financial troubles became known around 15 years ago Phil, like many other supporters, joined the Martyrs To The Cause Supporters Trust with the aim of trying to keep senior football alive in the town. It’s well documented the Trust ended up running the club whilst it was in administration and in 2009 Phil was invited to join the Club's Board. Season 2009-10 was certainly a very hectic one as a small band worked all hours to keep the club afloat During the course of that year, PhiI, along with a small number of others, met the Administrator, went in front of the Full Council of the FAW to plead our case to be allowed to continue playing in the English Pyramid and finally on June 1st 2010 going to meet with a committee of the FA at Wembley Stadium who, after interviewing us at length, allowed Merthyr Town FC - a club which PhiI had the honour of naming, to come into existence. Although he later resigned from the Board of Merthyr Town FC PhiI continued to support the club both home and away for over a year after this but he increasingly missed the day to day involvement of running a football club. In June 2012, on the recommendation of a work colleague, PhiI joined Pontyclun FC. At this point the club was at a very low ebb having just been relegated from the Welsh League. PhiI relished the challenge and, over the course of the next eight years, undertook numerous roles at the club including compiling their match programme and for the last two seasons serving as Club Secretary. Towards the end of last season PhiI felt very much a sense of 'mission accomplished' at Pontyclun FC and having seen them accepted into the new Ardal Leagues he relinquished the role of Club Secretary and all of the other above duties at the Club's AGM in the summer of 2020. PhiI has been involved with the South Wales Alliance League since its inception, initially serving as one of the Club Representatives, before taking on the role of Assistant Secretary Discipline in March 2016, a post which he has had the privilege to hold ever since. In addition PhiI has also been responsible for producing the League's handbook and the W.J. Owen Cup Final programme. PhiI has also liaised on behalf of the League with Groundhop UK helping them to organise their August Groundhop events with the SWAL. Whatever the weather the professionalism displayed by SWAL clubs in hosting these fixtures attracted high praise from both Groundhop UK and the groundhoppers themselves. Away from football PhiI is Head of the History Department at Y Pant Comprehensive School in Pontyclun. In his very limited spare time he enjoys writing and has published books on: ⚽ Merthyr Town AFC 1908-1934 ⚽ Merthyr Tydfil AFC - The Glory Years 1945-1954 ⚽ Aberdare Athletic 1920-1928 ⚽ Pontyclun FC - 'The A League Years 2012-2017' along with numerous booklets and articles on the history of the game in South Wales as well as being a regular contributor to Welsh Football Magazine. At present PhiI is heavily involved with research into the development of the game in South Wales in the 1890s. When things finally return to normal and football resumes again PhiI is looking forward to travelling around the various SWAL grounds every Saturday especially those seven venues which he needs to visit in order complete the 'full set' of Alliance League grounds and he looks forward to seeing as many of you as possible over the course of the 2021-22 season. A L AC TE - GOD Level Crossing Sunday 26th August 2018 ko 5pm SOUTH WALES ALLIANCE - DIVISION TWO LLANGEINOR AFC 4-2 AFC WATTSTOWN (Lock 38 & 73pen, Evans 45 Laidler 84) (Fisher 53, Huggins 65) Attendance 130 After the games at Vale United and Porthcawl Town we needed the groundhopping equivalent of a hug and a blanket. Whilst the two previous host clubs had been excellent, the weather had left us cold and wet, and with my organiser’s hat on I wondered what we’d find at the last game of the day. By and large the organised groundhop doesn’t deal in revisits, the whole point of groundhopping is visiting as many different grounds as possible. It has happened, the Welsh Hop revisited Treforest and the Peninsula Hop Penzance, and a visit to Llangeinor would be another. I can’t say “We” visited in 2003, I wasn’t there, and GroundhopUK was “The Welsh Groundhop” then. It’s a growing conundrum for us, at what point does the organiser take the view that a revisit would attract sufficient people that weren’t there first time round to make a revisit a worthwhile exercise for the club? The evidence of this crowd would suggest a “15 year rule” wouldn’t work. 130 is very low, but was this a case of anyone who hadn’t booked a ticket heading for home after the Porthcawl game? Certainly the game attracted next to no locals. It was disappointing to see this few people, and Chris Berezai and I will have a very long look at how we plan the forthcoming Hellenic Hops which of course we covered in the years preceding 2011. At the moment the idea is no revisits, but is there a significant desire to look at some of the clubs were visited back in the day? Would we gain more “Younger” hoppers than we’d lose of the “Old Guard?” But back at Llangeinor I had more pressing things to consider.