There has recently been a healthy interest to introduce Sunday Veterans football into our area, under the banner of a well respected and progressive Sunday football league.

In recent years, having suffered like many other leagues with the well-publicised decline in the number of open-age football teams participating in local football, we are striving to buck the trend and have decided that sitting back and accepting the situation is not the way to move forward. 

Clubs who are already playing ‘friendly’s’ on Sundays or who are part of the highly successful Essex Veterans League on Saturdays have indicated that they wish to formalise/expand their current playing status into competitive Sunday football in the local area.

What are we looking to do and why?

We are looking to fill a gap that we believe exists in the local footballing community for a Sunday Veterans football league competition. This is aimed at over 35s who wish to continue playing football in competitive yet friendly environment.  We strongly believe that this ethos fits with what we already promote as part of our “Corinthian” spirit charter.

Having looked into the local football scene very closely over a number of years and been an active part of it for many more, the only Sunday football which caters for this age group in this area is a “friendly” competition which comprises of a number of well established local football clubs who play regular “friendly” fixtures against each other. It is certainly not our intention to compete with nor replace this type of football as we believe there is still a place for it. We wish to offer an alternative for those players and clubs looking for an organised, competitive league competition instead.

We are initially looking to introduce a veterans division into our League along with a knockout cup competition, intent and confident of doing so before the start of the 2014/15 season. Entry to the open-age Corinthian Cup would also be an option for those sides who wish to take part in an additional cup competition. In the longer term, a full league structure with multiple divisions is certainly in mind with an overall aim of providing a competitive, progressive and friendly football competition with a reputation of encouraging a “Corinthian” spirit amongst its member clubs.

There are two successful leagues in our region which prove that there is a place for this type of football competition, namely the Green King Essex Veterans League which operates on a Saturday across the whole of Essex and the Southend Borough Combination Veterans League on a Sunday which both operate highly successful veteran’s leagues.

How we are looking to do it

We are contacting all clubs directly with existing veterans sides that operate in our area who may wish to participate in a Sunday competition as we have described above.

Discussions are already underway with Essex County FA to discuss how best to attract clubs to the competition using their wide ranging knowledge of the Essex football scene and we have already put the wheels in motion in designing posters and leaflets to promote the initiative further.

The focal point of our advertising will be through the power of the internet, in particular with social media which continues to grow and offer an effective and efficient way to get a message out to a target audience. With the League already heavily invested into technology, this seems a perfect way to continue that trend.

What happens next

If you feel that this is something that would be of interest to your club and you would like to be part of it, please get in contact with us or submit an application through the website directly. There is no obligation on you if you just wish to enquire at this stage.

We will be holding formal interview evenings April and May for those who submit applications for which you will formally be sent an invite to attend.