Rep Team National Finals Postponed

The remaining 7 ESFA representative team National Finals are to be postponed until September

The ESFA has announced today that the remaining representative team finals (District & County competitions) will be postponed until September 2021. The ESFA has shared the following statement today:

“When the ESFA made the decision to offer these particular rep. team competitions, later than we would during the course of an ordinary season, it was with the understanding that national finals would be probably have to be hosted at non-league club stadia, due to the time of the year that the tournaments would conclude.   As many of you may know, practically all Premier League and Football League Clubs undertake extensive pitch renovation work once the season has finished, except for a small window when they allow external providers to use their facilities at their discretion.   That window has now passed and despite exhaustive efforts to obtain suitable venues, it has become apparent that this is now not possible.   Moreover, St George’s Park is currently hosting the England squad as part of their European Championship  campaign and Lilleshall National Sports Centre, which hosted the ESFA Inter-Schools’ Cup finals in October 2020, would be a difficult venue to effectively implement Covid control measures for spectators with it essentially being an public space.

The ESFA Emergency Committee met on Friday evening to discuss the situation and agreed to postpone hosting ESFA National Finals until after the school summer holidays, in September, when hopefully, we will be able to secure a more suitable venue for each of the remaining 7 Cup Finals.   This will allow us the opportunity to try and create the best possible experience for the children and associations involved.”

Those Associations still involved in these competitions will be contacted in due course by the National Competitions Department once plans are in place for the scheduling of these events.