Whitburn match secretary leads call for summer switch

Jan 20 2011 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

WHITBURN Juniors match secretary Bob Malcolm has insisted summer football is something league bosses must adopt or risk seeing some clubs disappear forever.

The winter white-out has left the Burnie on ice for almost two months since they last played a competitive match way back on November 20.

And Malcolm believes it is time for change.

He said: “We need a fundamental change, and I think there is one happening in the senior game too with talk of winter breaks.

“We only shut down from mid-June until the beginning of August but we’ve now been without a game for almost two months so we’ve had more of a shut-down now than we have during the whole close season.

“We need to make simple steps forward but they must be driven by the clubs to go for a break into summer football.

“How it would work would have to be debated as if we currently start a contract which runs between August and June we’d need to consider whether we could implement a December and January break then start the season in March until November the following season.

“That gives us 40 Saturdays but we may need a little bit of flexibility in July for some teams with holidays at that time of year.

“It is possible to fit a season in over 36 weeks and involve everyone in all the cups.

“You’d certainly save money on winter training so we’d be spending less over the season.

“The winter has been very bad, as was last year.

“We had our financial problems last year but we are in better standing this year as a result of that.

“We haven’t had a game since November 20 and in that time we’ve had to try to keep the guys ticking over, which has incurred extra expense with us hiring indoor facilities. This isn’t easy when we are having no income.

“I would say though that we are in a healthier position than most in the juniors because we had our difficulties last year.

“I think we will probably see some junior teams either go to the wall or revert back to carefully look at their finances for next season.”

Malcolm also thinks a switch to summer football could lead to an increase in crowd numbers, especially if twinned with staggered kick-off times between Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons.

He explained: “People have to look at this and how the season is going to pan out financially for clubs who are feeling the pinch.

“In addition to summer football I’d consider allowing some teams to play their games on a Friday night.

“That could help more people come to the games and you may get a fall back from fans of the senior teams who play on a Saturday.

“Even fans of other local teams could watch one another if one played on a Friday and the other the following afternoon.

“Playing two games a week to catch up on fixtures would be possible with summer football.

“We have to look at things to reduce the expenses we have in the game.”

One of the biggest problems during the winter shutdown has been finding suitable training facilities and those at a reasonable cost.

Malcolm added: “If we are going to keep playing in the winter then we need more all-weather and indoor facilities for clubs to use as at the moment we are trying to get bookings alongside all the other junior clubs and even the senior clubs.

“We need to look at that and I think youth football has the right idea as they shut down between December and February. If they can do it I can’t see why we can’t.”