2011/2012 - End of Season Report
Firstly I would like to thank everyone involved with the Hackney & Leyton Football League, namely the clubs, the players, all the club officials, the referees, and also our Management Committee, for all the hard work carried out during a year where we knew we would have to face many difficulties because the of the major disruption caused by the hysteria surrounding the Olympics.
We managed to provide well organised football for the community, not just for footballers in Hackney, but also from the surrounding boroughs and beyond. The Management committee could not have coped if it wasn’t for the good humour and understanding of all our members, and also for the outstanding help provided by all the staff and management at the Marshes who were always on hand to solve any problems that arose.
But if you imagined that last season was a problem, we must all be prepared for more of the same in 2012-13, or even problems on a far larger scale. The first and foremost worry will be with regard to the BBC’s Music Festival Weekend when an expected One Hundred Thousand spectators will trample all over our pitches. What a disgraceful prospect, and what moronic bunch of idiots came up with this idea? They are not satisfied with vandalising the East Marsh, so now they wish to transform the Marshes into Hackney’s Glastonbury. They say it’s to raise the profile of the Marshes. What utter drivel, do they not realise that Hackney Marshes is known all over the world as the iconic home of grassroots football, not for music festivals.
They want to make up their minds as to what they want to use the Marshes for, or do they want to destroy it as a football venue altogether? Perhaps then the FA would regret not exercising some muscle when all these anti-football decisions were at the planning stage instead of them backing the Olympics unequivocally and failing to add one dissenting voice to aid our fight. I can’t recall one high profile character amongst all those ex footballers who profess to have played on the Marshes, raising a voice against the Olympic ‘steamroller’, especially David Beckham, who has unashamedly climbed on the Olympic band wagon even though he is a virtual ’Yank’ by now and forgot where the Marshes is.
Anyway those are the facts and we have just got to get on with it. We are not going to let them destroy our lives involved in this great game just so as those involved in the Olympics indulge themselves in a few weeks of elitist sport. We have been around for sixty five years and I can’t say that I will be around for another sixty five but we must all work hard at it to keep this league amongst the very best.
Now that’s my anti Olympic rant over so let’s get back to football matters during the past season. Obviously our congratulations go out to all the Divisional Champions and Cup Winners and the Runners-up in all those competitions, but let us not forget that all our clubs played a part and all our teams should give themselves a pat on the back for contributing to a season that provided great entertainment and an improving standard of football. There were a few incidents that we could have done without, but by and large I am very pleased with the friendship and good humour that exists within the league. I will even go so far as to say that I am very proud of our league and highly grateful for the respect that players and club officials show to me and the Committee.
We did have a few unsavoury incidents, most of them involving match officials. It wouldn’t be football if we eradicated them all together, but on behalf of the officials I would defend them in some of their actions because to use an old cliché, they are only doing their job. But I don’t blame them, I blame the FA, it is a fact that if a referee seeks promotion, then he has to be assessed. This means he has to do everything according to the book, He mustn’t use common sense. The FA makes no provision for this, and sometimes even for a minor offence, a player has to have a yellow card brandished in his face. In the old days a player only conceded a free kick, but nowadays it can be a card, and that will cost you ten quid thank you very much. I maintain that you will hardly respect a referee if he has just cost you ten quid for what was possibly an innocuous tackle, and this is not uncommon; I have seen many an undeserved yellow card dished out on numerous occasions.
The standard of refereeing and the resulting fines that accompany some of their decisions is, I’m afraid, something we will all have to live with. I have played and been involved in football all my life and I don’t like all the changes that have taken place in recent years. It seems to me that there are loads of ‘Burkes’ running FIFA with nothing better to do that sit in an office all day dreaming up further nonsense to damage our game, and our FA isn’t much further behind. They seem to have to justify their existence, and so they dream up more legislation and create more bureaucracy.
I was brought up to believe that football was a simple game, why do the authorities want to complicate it. And what do they do with all the fines and fees that they take off of our clubs? I should imagine that some of it goes towards the development of other forms of football, but that doesn’t help us, our clubs are having a hard time with their finances so it doesn’t help the league one little bit if they are in debt with fines to the FA. If they are suspended until they pay the FA, the result is that they can’t afford to pay for their pitch permits. It’s as simple as that, and we as a league come at the bottom of the pecking order and the FA fail to take responsibility for killing off some clubs. All this can all result from an over zealous referee, following the FA line, and waving cards around.
To close, I wish you all a happy summer. Keep looking at the website for any up to date information regarding the intrusion of the Olympics. Sam Wright, the Manager of the Marshes assures me that he will do everything in his power to set some pitches up for friendly’s, but I might have more information when I hopefully will see most of you at our AGM part One, Date and venue to be announced by text and on the website.
Best regards to all, and thank you to Dino for our excellent and informative website.
Johnnie Walker, Chairman