Swansea Referees' Society

On Tuesday 19th May, the FAW announced the “curtailment” (i.e. ending) of the 2019-20 football season in Wales.

The original announcement confirmed that final league placings for ADULT leagues would be decided on a “Points Per Game” basis.  It has subsequently been confirmed that “Points Per Game” should also be used to decide Junior and Youth League placings.

I suspect no-one is surprised that the decision has been made to end the season in the current circumstances.  All we can hope now is that football can somehow get back to normal in time for the scheduled start of next season.

In the meantime, enjoy the break everybody and stay safe.

On 12th May, the FAW announced that that 2019/20 season for Mini, Junior, Youth and Academy football leagues would be curtailed (i.e. ended) with immediate effect.

There will be further meetings during the week beginning 18th May to discuss the proposed methods of finalising the leagues affected.  Presumably, the options under discussion will include a) declaring the season “void” and b) finalising league positions using a “points per game” calculation (or even a weighted “points per game” where the calculation differentiates between Home & Away fixtures).

On the 16th May, the FAW also announce that the current suspension of all other Leagues would be extended until 12th June 2020.

Speaking personally, I feel the longer the suspension goes on the less likely it is that the season will re-start.  Assuming clubs would require some form of “mini pre-season” to restore player fitness before 2019-20 fixtures could re-commence, it is difficult to see how any delay beyond 12th June will not have a knock-on effect to next season.

The FAW today (17th April) announced a further extension to the suspension currently affecting all domestic football in Wales until Friday 15th May 2020.

In the meantime, all that we can do is hope and pray for an end to this current crisis and the dreadful impact it is having on so many lives.

#Stay Home => Protect the NHS => Save Lives#

On 26th March, the English FA announced that all football below the National league will cease and all results for season 2019-20 declared null & void – please click on link below for full story.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52052351

At this stage, the FAW have not followed suit and – for the time being at least – football in Wales could   re-start after 30th April. However, whilst there is no sign of the impact of the Coronavirus abating the prospect of football’s return on that date seems highly unlikely.

Following the FAW’s decision on Friday 13th March to initially suspend all domestic football in Wales until 4th April, they have now extended the period to at least 30th April.

After some early uncertainty, most clubs quickly decided that they would suspend all training also.

Since then, the UK Government introduced stringent “social distancing” rules which means any gathering comprising more than two people (unless they are a family group) is banned.  As a result, many clubs have cancelled scheduled committee meeting and, indeed, our Society meeting (due to take place on 23rd March) was also postponed.

These are very difficult and unsettling times and there is no way of telling how long it will be before normality returns.  In the meantime, we can only ask that everyone complies with the “social distancing” rules and stays safe.