2004-05 has been a good season for the AFC with significant developments and improvements in running the competition.  On the field there was little interference from the weather after the driest Winter for 50 years enabled the competition to be completed on time at all levels and with football at a high standard in the senior divisions.

Congratulations to Old Meadonians FC, Champions once again and to date the only winners of the Premier Division.  They also completed a very impressive league and cup double for the second successive season by winning the AFA Senior Cup.  Commiserations to UCL Academicals who saw their chance of a double snuffed out when Meadonians pipped them in the league by two points and they suffered defeat by fellow AFC Club Old Aloysians in the final of the LOB Senior Cup.  They will surely be challenging again strongly next season.

The AFC Referees Committee, Chaired by Bart O’Toole, has continued to work hard to ensure that we retain our existing referees and that we recruit new ones.   This is being done by ensuring that the AFC is well publicised in refereeing circles so that it is seen as a good competition for referees to take part in.  Newly qualified referees in the AFC’s catchment area receive invitations to join the competition and links with Football Associations and referees organisations have been strengthened.  Another very positive step has been establishment of a referees recruitment and retention officer (David Cross) who focuses on these issues. 

During the season the newly established Discipline Committee began monitoring standards of discipline amongst AFC Clubs.  League Assistant Secretary Mike Sainsbury is in the Committee’s engine room, scanning AFA disciplinary minutes and records and investigating any reported serious disciplinary incidents.  Mike’s painstaking work is being done to ensure that AFC players and Clubs continue to be able to enjoy football played in the AFC spirit of sportsmanship and hospitality.  Mike’s efforts also enable us to give early warning to Clubs whose disciplinary standards are slipping so that they have an opportunity to take action and deal with serial offenders in their ranks.

The representative team had a reasonable season winning four of their six fixtures.  One of these victories was a 3-1 win against Yorkshire Old Boys played at Old Minchendenians’ ground.  Their Club pulled out all the stops and did a splendid job as hosts for the occasion at short notice when the original plans for this fixture went awry.  Heartfelt thanks to them for their support.

Following a discussion about standards of hospitality at last year’s AGM the Amenities Committee canvassed clubs for data and opinions.  Figures have been collected for example on numbers of Clubs providing half time refreshments, the percentage of away teams accepting hospitality and the cost to home clubs of providing it.  The results show that opinions vary widely, there is no general concensus amongst Clubs on standards of amenities so it is difficult to draw meaningful conclusions.  Few clubs want to set minimum standards for the senior divisions. 

Paul Fletcher who played for Bolton Wanderers,  Burnley and England was star turn at the 2004 Dinner.  While the occasion remains a glittering spectacle and a focus for celebration, its  timing in October / November has been criticised.  The Dinner Committee has consulted the Clubs and an overwhelming majority want to see the date moved forward to May / June and this change will take effect for the 2006 dinner.

The AFC has developed two significant new policies during the season.  The first is the Child Protection Statement which supplements the child protection policies and guidelines of the Football Association and the AFA.  Many AFC clubs run youth sections and the AFC aims to maintain standards of football which will provide an ideal environment for Clubs to introduce youth players into senior football.  We place high priority on ensuring that member Clubs maintain standards of care and protection for young people and the policy statement includes guidance on best practice to help our Clubs achieve these aims.  We have also appointed Danny McConnell as the AFC Child Protection Officer and Danny is able to advise Clubs on Child Protection issues.

The second new policy is the sports equity policy and statement of commitment.  This builds on the Football Association’s anti discrimination policy for football and we have been working with the FA in developing the AFC statement.  The statement highlights the diversity of people taking part in our football and makes it clear that we will confront and eliminate racism and discrimination wherever they appear.  The statement also fully supports the FA’s high profile ‘kick it out’ and ‘report racism’ campaigns.  Currently at the draft stage, copies of the statement will be sent to all member Clubs, referees, League Officers, representatives of minority groups and other AFC stakeholders for observations and feedback and the final version should be ready for formal adoption early in the new season.

Copies of both statements will be published on the AFC website.

Turning now to standards of administration, the message for some Clubs has to be ‘could do a lot better’.  One Club this season has managed to rack up £435 in AFC fines.  The smooth running of the competition relies on good and timely exchange of information between Clubs and the volunteers who run the AFC and with ninety Clubs in membership we cannot afford to allow administration to deteriorate.  On a much more positive note, congratulations to Chertsey Old Salesians, City of London (second season in a row), Ealing Association, London Welsh, Old Bromleians (second season in a row), Old Gladstoneians, Valley Park Rangers and Witan, all of whom have not received a single league fine throughout the season.

There has been concern about the small number of dedicated individuals having multiple roles which are key to the running of AFC football.  This makes the competition potentially vulnerable if, for whatever reason, those people had to withdraw suddenly.  Also, it is proving difficult to achieve a good balance between the need to deal with day to day administration and the need to develop the competition in ways which will benefit our Clubs and promote AFC football.  In short, there are too many tasks and too few people to carry them out.  One solution which the Executive is considering is to take on paid administrative support which will increase our capacity to prepare strategies and plans for the future and mean that we are less reliant on a handful of hard working volunteers.  It is likely that a proposal along these lines will be put to Clubs next season.

The reputation of the AFC as a good competition in which to take part is spreading.  This is apparent through the rapidly increasing number of enquiries we receive both from Clubs and from individuals about joining.  We reviewed our procedures for admitting new member Clubs recently and propose to introduce a new associate membership category for Clubs interested in joining us.  This will give us and the Clubs a chance to consider each others suitability. 

This work has also raised a fundamental question, ‘what is an AFC Club ?’  A mission statement for the AFC is being developed which will clarify the philosophy behind our football.

In last year’s report I paid tribute to the work done by Danny McConnell in setting up and maintaining probably our greatest asset – the AFC website.  Danny has worked on the site throughout this season, continuing to add new features and pages always with a view to maintaining functionality for the benefit of Club and League Officers alike.  Surely our site cannot be beaten as a model of efficiency for a football competition and a vital means of communication. 

Danny now has a new role,  Assistant Secretary – Communications.  This goes hand in hand with the AFC Communications Committee which has now replaced the Handbook and Technology Committees and whose members will work to improve and promote all forms of communication within the AFC.  One early target area is to encourage more feedback from Clubs on the way the AFC runs and how it should develop.  We will be arranging a round of evening regional meetings next season when League Officers can meet Club reps and listen to their views and ideas.

Our rules provide for 12 Club representatives to be elected at the AGM to join the Executive and other Committees.  Since the competition was launched we have not come close to filling all of these vacancies which is a concern firstly because Club representatives ensure that the Executive remains firmly in touch with the needs of our member Clubs and secondly because Club representatives very often go on to help shape the future of the competition in other Executive roles.  A letter has gone out to all Clubs before the AGM asking for more volunteers to step forward and I hope we will be able to elect new faces at the AGM.

In closing I should like to thank all of the League Officers for their work throughout the season on behalf of our member Clubs.

John Monk (Honorary Secretary) - June 2005