As per National FA guidelines the under 9s are playing in 3 blocks of 'competitive' matches and rest of the time friendly games.

With so many Saturday teams we wanted to maintain large groups and variety of opposition but stick to the 4 week guidance.

The plan is 9 teams in each group playing 2 games per week to make 8 games. all of these matches are 15 min each way and its 3 games at one venue all selected at random but trying to take into account Club pitch usage

The dates and KO times are set and to be used by ALL teams, the Home team play 1st and 3rd each time. We have also organised friendly fixtures on the opening weekend 7 Sept and 28 Sept (Forest v Derby)

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Group A with 9 teams, with 8 matches of 30 mins.
Group B with 9 teams playing 8 games of 30 minutes

Phase 2 will be Top 8 into 2 Groups of 4 and the remaining 10 in Group B or C - will be trophies awarded after Phase 2.

5 COLOURED DIVISIONS
The remaining 5 coloured Divisions are in Groups of 9 with 8 games of 30 mins over 4 weekends.
Teams will qualify into Groups 1 to Group 5 based on final league position.

PITCH FEES PAID BY THE HOME TEAM (including the neutral game)

REFEREE FEES IF YEL ALLOCATED ARE £21 including Travel PAYMENT OF £7 PER TEAM

GOAL DIFFERENCE DOES NOT COUNT

We appreciate this is a NEW format and we will ask Managers for feedback at the end of November before deciding how to proceed in March.

FULL DETAILS OF THE NOVEMBER PHASE WILL BE ANNOUNCED BEFORE THE START OF THE SEASON