The Fermanagh and Western Football League are planning to kick off the 2021/22 season two weeks earlier than its traditional starting date.

With the pandemic restrictions beginning to ease, the league management committee are proposing a return to competitive action on Saturday, August 7 for the clubs in the top flight, allowing four fixtures to be played before the rest of the divisions start their campaigns on August 21.

“We have set up a meeting of the management committee for Thursday night to get the dates set for the AGM and EGM, and then confirm the rule changes,” revealed League Chairman, Neil Jardine.

“The one we definitely are looking at is to change the start date of the season to allow us to start on August 7. That has to go through an EGM, but I don’t see anybody objecting to it, and the feedback since it was put out seems to have been positive.

“We can’t start until after August 1, but our current rules state that the season starts on the third Saturday in August, which this year would be August 21.

“With the increased size in Division One now, we see this as an opportunity to play what are effectively those four extra games by that date.

“What we are thinking is that it would be only Division One that started on August 7, with games on August 10, 14 and 17 and then everyone else kicks off on August 21. Then we can deal with it as a normal season from then on in.”

Traditional dates

The League are also planning that the Mulhern Cup and Rehill Cup return to their traditional dates, starting on February 22, with the first round of the Irish Junior Cup already planned for September 11 and 18, providing there are no further restrictions imposed.

“We are expecting it will be okay with the way everything is going, and that is the way we have to look at it,” said Jardine.

“The Cup competitions will revert to their normal dates, and with us starting on August 7, our Division One teams should be well into their stride ahead of the Junior Cup first round.

“The restrictions that prevented us from playing should be gone, but social distancing will still be in place, and we don’t really know what way that will affect things, regarding travelling to away matches, changing rooms, stuff like that.

“I fully expect that there will still be challenges.”

While it is hoped that there will be no further restrictions that impact on fixtures, in the event of future cancellations the League are planning to make a decision based on the circumstances at the time, rather than put pre-season rules in place about what to do in the event of an interrupted campaign.

“There is no catch-all situation that covers it,” admitted Jardine.

“This season we called it after just four games played, and there are so many different circumstances that could come in to play that you have to look at where we are at that time.

“I don’t know of any other junior or local league locally that have put anything in place.

“There is no definite right answer, so we have a get-out clause where we can make a decision at the time.

“We always have the option of consulting the clubs as well. We will try to leave it as open as possible.”

The extra fixtures scheduled for Division One have come about because of the 14-team format resulting from the shortened 2019/20 season and the resulting decision not to enforce any relegation.

The League Chairman believes that the number of top-flight clubs is unsustainable, and the league will be seeking a resolution to try to return the division to 12 clubs.

“One of the rule changes that will have to be put up at the AGM will be how we get that down to 12 teams again,” he revealed.

“It was proposed at the AGM in September, 2020, that we would relegate four and that would bring us straight back down to 12, but that didn’t give us the necessary majority.

‘Protecting themselves’

“We will have to look at that again, whether it is a case of relegating three this season and three the following season to make it easier. Clubs are protecting themselves and you can accept that, but on the other hand they are saying there are too many games.

“Everybody realises that it was an exceptional circumstance to have 14 teams in Division One, and we need to get that down to make it more practical, and also make Division Two and Division Three more practical.

“The other big unknown is if we are going to see some teams not re-enter. Are we going to see maybe a reserve team drop out because they don’t have the numbers, or are teams struggling?”

The League Management committee are set to meet tonight (Thursday), with the AGM and EGM likely to be scheduled for early June in a bid to push through the new rules in time for teams to commence their pre-season preparations.