If you’ve managed U6, U7 and U8s you may have arranged your own friendly matches or even taken part in a “friendly league” similar to the one organised by the Garforth Junior football league for both U7s and U8s but as you head towards U9 and U10 you are now faced with the question “do you want to enter a ONE team or a TWO team league?” but you may be asking yourself what does that really mean ????

To help you answer the question you need to ask yourself the following questions :

1. How many players will I have next season ? Be realistic, if you have 10 regular players but are hoping to recruit another 10 before the start of the season work on what you have now since the extras might not appear in time.

2. Are all the players in the correct school year ? To play at U9 players MUST be in school year 4 whilst at U10s they can be either school year 4 or 5. This is a FA rule therefore any younger players who made up the numbers in the friendly matches can not be registered with the league.

If having answered these 2 questions
a) you have reached a number any lower than 14 you should definitely be looking to enter a SINGLE TEAM league
b) Player numbers between 14-18 need to seriously consider you may loose any players or if any of the players regularly don’t turn up for games … if either of these apply we would recommend you enter the SINGLE TEAM league
c) Player numbers 18-24 should enter a TWO team league (unless you have sufficient volunteers to operate two totally separate squads at which point you may prefer to enter TWO x SINGLE teams)
d) Player numbers beyond 25 should consider multiple entries (eg. 1 x Two team plus 1 x Single team)  but obviously this does require extra volunteers / coaches / managers etc

So you’ve decided which type of league to enter but what now ??
One / Single team can register up 14 players
Two team entries can register up to 24 players
For each registered player the league’s player registration secretary will issue a photo ID card which  needs to be kept by the team manager since these will need to be produced each week.

Players who are registered for the single team league cannot  play in the 2 squad unless: -

a) They are de-registered from the single team league and re-registered for the 2 squad league – or vice versa

b) They are registered for both the single and 2 squad leagues.

For single team the manager can select any of the registered to players to play in the match each week

For the two team league the matches has to select TWO separate squads on a weekly basis – NO player can play in BOTH matches which is why you potentially need more players than you did when you played in a friendly league

For either type of league both home & away manager needs to complete a match card listing various information including the names of each player and which match (for 2 team) did he take part in. This match card needs to be sent to the appropriate divisional secretary for them to check the list of players is correct (if you checked the ID cards the players should always be correct!)

At this point you are probably asking yourself with 14 players you should enter a single team league when although I can register them all I only get to play one match each week  …. The following simple reasons :

1. Unless you have 100% reliability with only 14 players are likely to be short of players on a regular basis (remember they can only play in ONE match) and  it  rarely does children any good to have to play 5 or 6 against 7 just to complete the fixture since they are likely to suffer a heavy defeat.

2. Under league rules you have to complete BOTH matches to fulfil the fixture and a fine will be issued for non fulfilment (currently £10 / fixture)

3. It is our experience that most managers are happy to play a second “friendly” match which means you can play the extra / unregistered / new players without any rules having to report the result to the league. If you are short of players a few of the players used in the league game could make up the numbers.

4. New players can join at any part of the season and play in the friendly game the same weekend rather than having to wait until their registration has been processed.