Local Saturday football league at risk of going out of existence

Rochdale Online Alliance Football League

The Rochdale Online Alliance Football League is at risk of going out of existence at the end of the current season.

The inception of the Premier League and the Saturday lunchtime live televised game, the rapid growth in popularity of small-sided football and midweek competitions played under lights on 3G and 4G facilities, changing work patterns, the growth of alternative sports and the rapid fall in the numbers of sixteen to nineteen year olds playing competitive Saturday afternoon football has put the future of the Rochdale Online Alliance Football League in serious doubt.

The competition currently has fifteen clubs providing a total of eighteen teams, but a significant number are finding it increasingly difficult to continue. With running costs rising annually, attracting players is ever more challenging.

At the start of the 2014-15 season the League Management Committee had no option but to forewarn its member clubs that should any of the competition’s current teams resign at the end of the current season then the league would no longer have sufficient numbers to provide competitive football and offer value for money.

The league is therefore appealing for teams to join for the 2015-16 in the hope of gradually increasing membership to a more sustainable level.

To this end the league will, wherever possible, assist teams with their development and in doing so involve their affiliated County FA, as this will allow them access to the most current information regarding funding and training opportunities.

The Lancashire FA is committed to supporting the league’s bid to sustain its member clubs/teams and grow in the coming months and years.

They will support new teams wishing to join the league and point them in the right direction in terms of funding to support the initial set up costs throughout their first season and beyond.

Competitive Saturday afternoon adult football has been played throughout the town since the early part of the twentieth century with the formation of the Rochdale Sunday Schools League in 1904. Teams from church and chapel groups across the borough participated and, at its height, it was allegedly the largest amateur league in the country.

With the expansion of local industry it was clear an alternative competition was required, so those who didn’t qualify to play in the Sunday Schools League could have an opportunity to play football in the local community.

To meet this need the Rochdale Amateur League came into being with numerous company, social club and pub teams competing alongside such industrial giants as Dunlop, Tweedale & Smalley, TBA and Woolworths, all of whom had their own private grounds.

For the next fifty years both competitions operated side-by-side but with social attitudes and the industrial landscape changing it was agreed that a single competition was needed, and so in 1982 both leagues amalgamated to form the Rochdale Alliance Association Football League.

In that first season the newly created league had forty two member clubs fielding a total of fifty two teams every Saturday afternoon, and, at its peak in 1986, league membership had risen to sixty five teams.

Membership of the league had extended beyond the local boundaries as far as Oldham to the South and Todmorden on the Yorkshire border to the North, even the local detention centre, HMP Buckley Hall, had a team.

A league spokesman said: "It is imperative that we keep adult eleven versus eleven football alive in Rochdale and with the drive and determination from the league, and its members, along with County FA support, we can all improve and grow our national game, and play in a safe, secure and enjoyable environment.

"Football touches so many people, including players, referees, supporters, families/friends, volunteers, and affects our health and well-being in many positive ways.

"The social aspect of football in our local communities is also a very important factor and offers many an opportunity to become involved and contribute to local sport, where otherwise they would not get that opportunity."

For further information, questions and enquiries please contact the League Secretary, Mike Willmore, in the first instance:

mikewillmore@me.com

07947 769 986