HAMPSHIRE Football Association chief executive Neil Cassar recently rallied members of local football together to show a “united” front against the alarming decline in the 11-a-side game at grassroots level in the region.

Since the 2008/09 season more than 4,000 teams have given up, with those numbers continuing to rise and the county’s leagues facing a constant battle to keep sides interested and playing.

As a result, the Hampshire FA called an adult league forum at the association’s headquarters in Basingstoke.

This was organised in order to debate how this trend can be halted and if any way reversed.

Referees, secretaries, coaches, development officers, council members, treasurers, chairmen and other stakeholders attended the meeting, which Cassar believed was a “huge success”.

“The forum united as many football representatives in the county as possible,” he said, “including staff to network and engage with members, find out from their perspectives the underlying issues that we each face in the 11-a-side game and what can be done about it.

“The forum provided everyone with the opportunity to voice their concerns and allows us as the county FA to listen, absorb what is being said, provide our statistics and information in return as well as giving our members a detailed account as to what we are doing to combat some of the rising issues and concerns.

“I thought the meeting was a huge success and did exactly what we intended and set out to do – get everyone together round the table so that we can all move forward together and set out our aims and objectives for the future of the 11-a-side game in Hampshire.”

In recent years, The FA has identified a number of warning signs that might indicate that a team is struggling and at risk of folding, such as repeated fixture cancellation, poor organisation on match days and resignation of key volunteers.

Often these risks are best detected via the leagues as well as match officials.

In the 2015/16 season, Hampshire FA developed an ‘Early Warning System’ form designed to assess the level of risk of each team against those detected by every adult league in the county.

So far, only a handful of leagues are actively using the Early Warning System in Hampshire, but it is hoped more will utilise it.

One of the key aims of the forum was to try and encourage more leagues to implement the Early Warning System which could see the county FA respond to alarming matters urgently, in order to support those teams before it is too late.

The forum was designed to start helping to identify the key challenges and potential solutions to the participation levels.

  • What do you make of the state of local grassroots football? Let us know via email at echosport@dailyecho.co.uk or comment below.