The Garforth Junior Football League was formed in 1970 by a group of Junior Football teams in the Garforth village area, near Leeds.

Garforth Villa JFC has been an ever present since the formation of the League. The League began to decline in the mid seventies due to a lack of adult helpers to administer the League as it began to expand from an Under 13 League only, in 1970, to Under 11 and Under 15 in 1972-73, followed by expansion to all ages in 1975.

As more Junior Leagues in the area began to be founded, in the mid 1970′s, and older Leagues died, due to lack of adult help with administration, it needed a new force to take the League into the future. This came with the appointment of Adrian Exley to Fixture Secretary duties in 1977, a young man with forward planning ideas. He became League Secretary in 1979 and stayed in this position plus others until the end of the 2006-7 season. Colin Smith joined the Management Committee in the early 1980′s, and the two began to move the League forward. Colin was the Chairman for many years before standing down with Adrian at the end of the 2006-7 season. Barry Higgins looked after the League’s finances until he resigned in 1990, to be replaced by Peter Griffiths.

Things were not going well in the mid 1980′s, as the Secretary realised that he had far too much to cope with in running such a big League, and as a result it was decided to appoint Divisional Secretaries. Divisional Secretaries are a group of adult helpers who are responsible, to the Management Committee, for the day to day administration of each age group within the League. Subsequently a Players Registration Secretary and a Referees Appointments Secretary were appointed. Since then the League has grown from strength to strength, having 70 Clubs with 200 teams at under 8 to Under 14 level.

The GJFL Website was introduced in October 2000 by Paul Dixon. Roy Smith took over this duty in January 2005 when Paul had to leave due to ill health, and Mike Hemmins took over from Roy in 2009, changing the site to a more interactive and updated site as can be seen by the current incarnation.

2004 Saw the appointment of John Bleakley as the League’s Development Officer. In partnership with the WRCFA, the GJFL and its member clubs started its progression toward achieving FA Charter Standard League Status.

2006-7 Saw the GJFL accept only Charter Standard Approved teams and those who have started the application process. 2006 also saw the introduction of fair play leagues for small-sided soccer and FREE coaching demos to all GJFL member clubs delivered by top quality international recognised coaches. The West Riding County FA awarded the GJFL Charter Standard League status in August 2007.

David Brown was appointed as the League Secretary in 2007, his second spell on the Management Committee, and Michael Myers as the League Chairman replacing Colin who remained a Divisional Secretary. Colin then took over the the Treasurer’s role in June 2008 in place of the long serving Peter Griffiths. Peter moved to take on the Player Registration Secretaries role as Ray Collier stands down after five years in the role.

Season 2008/09 saw Dawn Hemmins take on the roll of U9′s Div Sec.

Season 2009/10 welcomes Roy Kearsley, Gary Thornton & Dominic Ferguson to the committee. Roy takes on role of U13′s div sec in place of Roy Smith who is retiring from the League, Gary will look after U9s whilst Dawn moves up to take on the U11s and Dominic takes on the new challenge of running an U8s friendly league.

Season 2010/11 has us welcoming Richard Barnett who will be looking after the U7s and U8s in their Friendly League whilst Dominic moves up from U8s to take on the U9s. Dawn Hemmins and Roy Kearsley move on up with their respective age groups and Craig Pearson takes over the U11s with Gary moving up to U13s leapfrogging Bob Daly who stays with the U10s for another season.

Mike Hemmins also takes on Respect Co-ordinator and Referee Development as the League looks to give the FA’s RESPECT program some added bite with the support of the new Touchline Manager initiative…